Blacktop Obsession
by cheerthis95
Summary: The blacktop of life has a lot of different ways it can lead you,depending on the choice you make.Some paths are good & others are bad. What happens when you have lost it all and can keep someone else from making the same mistakes you did?
1. Chapter 1

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 1

"I know I get some tees for my crew." Dominic Toretto looked at the Sparco Vendor table. It was race wars and it was the first night at that. The first night was always wagering bets, partying, and finding old friends and foes. The real wars would start around ten am the next morning. It was barely sunset and the girl turned around, shielding her eyes.

"And how is that?" Shayde Sutton asked with a mischievous smile and her honey brown eyes sparkling. She walked out from behind the table to give Dominic a hug. They were old friends from back in the day.

"Because I own you like I own everyone else." Dominic joked, making Shayde shake her head. He gave her a good look over, appreciating what he saw. She was about 5'10 and she had long black hair with electric blue streaks protruding from the bottom layer. She was well tanned and pretty slender. Her mid length shirt showed off her bellybutton with the dangling button ring.

"Funny. I never thought of myself as being able to be owned, boy." She quipped. "How ya been? All that mess with the police settled now?" She asked, turning serious.

"Yeah, it's square. Long story how it all worked out but yeah, it's straight." Dominic said as he looked over the stuff on the table.

"I actually do have some vendor t-shirts if you want them." Shayde pulled her hair up, starting to feel the desert heat.

"I'm cool. I'm just waitin on the rest of the crew to come in and killing time." Dominic shrugged. "How's that sister of yours?" He asked.

"She's good. Still making lots of trouble but you know, I got her under control." Shayde laughed.

"God, don't I know. Her, Mia and Jess were never any good together. Remember that time you and I had to go get them from the station? And all they could do was bust up laughing?" Dominic asked.

"Hell yeah. I won't ever let her live that down. I think that was the start of her career as a rebel began." Shayde laughed. "She's a damn mess. And it has only gotten worse." She warned.

"She here this year?" Dominic asked settling on buying a few glow sticks for his crew, mainly Jesse.

"Yeah, she should be here as soon as she's done with her community service for this week." Shayde nodded.

"Well stop by camp, girl. I'm sure Jesse and the boys would love to see you guys." Dominic said, handing her some money for the glow sticks.

"Will do. I should be done in about an hour when she gets here. Here, take them these." Shayde threw him six t-shirts.

"I only need five. Letty and Mia aren't here." Dominic said, coughing lightly. Shayde stopped what she was doing and looked at him.

"You mean Letty's not racing? Is she okay?" Shayde asked, her eyes focused on Dominic.

"She's fine, at least I think. We split up. You know that whole mess we were in….well, I'll fill you in on all of it tonight when you come over, cool?" Dominic asked.

"Yeah, okay." Shayde nodded, knowing by how uncomfortable Dominic was acting that it was something hard for him to talk about. "See you then." She promised. She waved as he walked off, wondering what possibly would make Letty miss race wars. She was snapped back into reality by a guy came by to look at some stuff. She checked her watch, wondering where her sister was.

"Do you need a ride?" A guy coasted along Kaidyn Sutton as she walked on the side of the highway, her backpack on her back.  
"I'm pretty close to where I need to be going but thanks." Kaidyn smiled, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"So you must be going to race wars?" The guy asked.

"Yeah, I am. My car's a few miles back." Kaidyn smiled, for some reason relived that it was a racer.

"Well, I'm headed there too. Hop in. I'll give your feet a break." The guy offered, reaching over to open the passenger door.

"I don't normally take rides from strangers but you seem all right." Kaidyn laughed, getting in. Her feet were killing her and she was tired. Not only that, she was late meeting her sister.

"My name's Brian O'Connor." Brian said, his eyes on the road. "I know how bad it sucks to be stranded and to have to walk." He grinned.

"Kaidyn Sutton. What team you race with?" She asked, eyeing the interior of his car. It was hard to not be jealous of this car. It was the car of all cars.

"Toretto. You race?" Brian asked, turning into the entrance of the desert where race wars was held.

"Once in a while. I may do some racing while I'm out here." Kaidyn said with a nod. She could kick herself for not making sure her car had a spare tire before she left.

"Where do you want me to drop you off at?" Brian asked, pulling in slowly as to not hit the swarm of people that were walking around.

"Over by the Sparco sign if you would please." Kaidyn said.

"Gotta love sparco. I know I do." Brian laughed.

"Yeah, my sister works as a vendor for them." Kaidyn nodded. "Pretty cool cause she gets the hook up." She laughed.

"Here ya go." Brian said, putting his car into park and letting her grab her stuff.

"Thanks for the ride." She smiled at him, getting her stuff together and getting out. Shayde saw her get out and headed over there, concerned to know where her car was.

"You must be her sister, I take it." Brian flashed one of his best smiles to the girl. She leaned down on his window.

"That I am, what kind of bad comments did she make about me?" She laughed, looking into the boy's intense blue eyes.

"None that I heard. She was almost here when I picked her up. She had a flat tire a few miles back. You guys gonna be okay to get that changed or do you need some help with it?" He asked, ready to offer her some help.

"I'm sure we can manage, but thank you." The girl smiled, locking eyes with Brian.

"Well, all right then. Take care. Maybe I'll see you around." He nodded, not really wanting to leave.

"More than likely. Thanks again for helping my sister." She waved while taking her sister's backpack for her. "You forget to put the tire in there again, Blondie?" She teased with a grin.

"Shut up. I was tired." Kaidyn rolled her eyes, plopping down in a metal fold up chair that was behind the booth.

"Well, you better wake up cause we have a long night ahead of us, girly girl." Shayde ruffled her sister's long blonde hair and teased.

"I thought the first night was to get set up and _relax_." She looked confused.

"Oh, you do relax. By partying. I thought you'd be all over the partying since you're the queen of the nightlife." Shayde raised an eyebrow.

"That's what you get for thinking, dear sister." Kaidyn retorted as she popped open a RockStar energy drink.

"You know those things are bad for you." Her sister shook her head.

"So is sitting in the sun all day, it gives you skin cancer." Kaidyn shot back with an impish grin.

"All right, I'm off. Let's go get that car of yours." Shayde said, locking up the last of the stuff in the portable storage unit and grabbing her keys. The sun was down now and the area where race wars was in looked like a mini Las Vegas at night. She unlocked the blue flamed custom detailed Ferrari Spyder for her sister and they headed out towards the main entrance.

"She's driving good. Are you running her in any races?" Kaidyn asked, her hand on the dashboard as her sister put the top down. The crisp night air smelled of a mix of sweetness from the local flowers and tar, something that could only be appreciated by street racers and the likes of them.

"I don't know. We'll see." Shayde shrugged, not really wanting to talk races with her baby sister. She'd just want to race her car. And while her sister's car was well up to the challenge, it was more of a protective older sister thing that kept her from wanting her sister to race. She had been raising her since she had turned 18 due to her Dad dying. They had lost their mom at an early age and Shayde had always felt like the mother of Kaidyn since they were 9 years apart but when their dad died, she really did take custody of her and became responsible for her sister's life.

"I am planning on banking tomorrow." Kaidyn said rather lightly, knowing it could fuel a fight between them.

"We'll talk about that tomorrow, let's just have fun tonight. Cool?" Shayde asked, her eyes straight ahead on the road. Both girls were glad to have got to the car at that time, it broke the uneasy silence.

"Isn't my baby so beautiful?" Kaidyn asked with a proudness that made Shayde laugh.

"Just astonishing." Shayde laughed. "Maybe you should enter it into beauty pageants like the ones you do." She joked, making Kaidyn laugh.  
"There's no pageants for cars, is there?" She asked, sounding like a typical blonde did when they were confused about something.

"Car shows, hello. And to think the DMV gave you a license. That is _scary_." Shayde got the tire out of the back of her trunk and began to change the color changing RX-7's tire. "There, she's good to go." Shayde got up and dusted her knees off.

"It's not a she, it's a he." Kaidyn said matter of factly.

"Ok, whatever." Shayde rolled her eyes. Her sister was so detail oriented it was a fault of hers. "Don't you call all cars girls?" She asked as Kaidyn rummaged for her keys.

"Yeah, so?" Kaidyn shrugged, holding up her keys triumphantly. Her purse was small but crammed with stuff and it being dark had made it a challenge to find the keys.

"So, why is yours a boy?" Shayde asked, not knowing why she even bothered. It wasn't like cars could be girls or boys and she had often given her sister grief for calling them him or her, she or he.

"Mine's special." Kaidyn laughed.

"Uh yeah. Get in and try to make in the gate this time, would ya?" Shayde asked, not even bothering to go into anymore discussion with her. It would just end up hurting her head. She laughed as she got in her own car. Kaidyn was not your stereotypical blonde. She was actually quite smart but she was silly a lot and wasn't afraid to show her many blonde moments. They roared into the gates and found their way to their trailer.

"So where we going?" Kaidyn asked after unloading her car and changing. She was working on touching up her make-up when Shayde had come out, also changed for the night time scene. Instead of Shayde's t-shirt and some jeans, she now had on a red corset top that laced up in the black and some jeans with flames on the legs. She had pulled up her hair into a loose ponytail.

"You're with me so don't worry about it." Shayde joked, using a line that Kaidyn had hated to hear her use when they were younger. Kaidyn had always been the type of kid to ask so many questions growing up that Shayde had had to find an answer to shut her up and that was on more than one occasion.

"Haha. Those days are over now. You know I'll just keep asking. How does this look?" Kaidyn asked, twirling around. She had on a sleeveless, strapless black and silver baby doll top that ended perfectly at the waist and then some figure fitting jeans complete with stilettos that were mainly silver.

"Ya look like a typical racer chaser to me, kiddo." Shayde turned around so Kaidyn wouldn't see the smile on her face.

"You are such a whore." Kaidyn shook her head. "I think I'll take you to court and sue you for emotional distress and mental anguish." She pouted, her mouth open in shock at her sister's comment.

"You know I'm kidding. You look fabulous." Shayde put her arm around her and led her off to where they were headed. "I got a surprise for you tonight." She smiled excitedly.

"If it's anything like your humor, I'm scared." Kaidyn pretended to shake. She looked around the area, her eyes taking in all the camps and cars and pretty lights. The sounds of the crickets chirping mixed with the roaring of engines was music to any racer's ears. It was just hot enough outside to know it was summer and it seemed to be a perfect night.

"You are a very funny little girl." Shayde teased as they came up to a campsite blaring music and with nice fire going. It was surrounded by five racing cars.

"Whoa. Check these cars out. Very nice." Kaidyn whistled stopping to look at the closest one she came to.

"You like the car, huh?" Dominic stepped out of the shadows, making her jump. He grinned as Shayde laughed.

"Oh my god, Dominic?" Kaidyn asked, her voice a little bit higher than normal.

"The one and only. Come here and give me a hug, girl." He held out his arms and scooped her up. "You know you weren't allowed to grow up but you sure as hell did." He laughed.

"I'm so happy to see you here! Is everyone else here too?" She asked excitedly.

"V, Leon and Jess are all inside that trailer right there. Why don't you go say hi and shock the hell outta 'em?" He asked, putting her back down on the ground.

"I'm on it." She called over her shoulder, already taking off.

"Same old hyper blonde I remember." Dominic laughed, giving Shayde a hug.

"Like I said, it's only gotten worse." She smiled. "How are you really doing?" She asked, worried about him.

"I'm good. All things are straightened out." Dominic nodded.

"Oh my god!" Jesse could be heard yelling from inside the trailer. He ran out of the trailer. "Dom, Dom, did you see who was here?" He asked, shocked.

"Yeah, Jess, I saw. Why don't you offer her a drink or something? Me and Shay'll be in a bit." Dominic nodded.

"So, you gonna tell me where the girls are at and what happened?" Shayde asked, walking with her arm around her old friend's waist. Dominic's body tensed up and he gave a weary sigh.

"Yeah, I knew it wouldn't be too long before you'd ask. Might as well get it out of the way." Dominic said with a grimace. "You heard about the bust right and how that all went down when we were poppin trucks, right?" he asked.

"Yeah. " Shayde nodded, almost not breathing. She was scared what he was going to say. She had been going through her own problems at the time and hadn't been around to hear it directly from the guys and wasn't sure exactly how bad what she was about to hear was.

"Well, Letty left me after it all. It was my idea to do it that night and she had a bad feeling about it. I didn't value her enough, Shay. She got fed up with the cheating, the lying, the not listening. She blamed me for V almost getting killed and I can't blame her there. For Jess getting shot at the wars two years ago, pretty much for everything. She was right on. So after she made sure V and Jess were going to make it, she took off. She only stayed cause I did a stint in jail and they all needed her." Dominic sighed, scratching his bald head.

"Damn." Was all Shayde could say, knowing there was going to be more.

"Yeah, the day I got out, she came and picked me up and she had her bags packed. Which I couldn't blame her, ya know?"Dominic nodded, motioning to a lawn chair for Shayde to sit in. "Want a beer?" He offered, then tossed her one.

"Thanks." She nodded, taking a drink of it, wiping the can's sweat off on her jeans afterwards.

"So then she got back at me. She's clever like that. Mia told me she was going with her and came out with her bags packed. I tried to tell them both I would change but they wouldn't hear nothin of it. So they left. Mia said she'd call when she felt like she could handle talking to me." Dominic took a big long gulp of the beer and finished it, tossing it on the ground.

"Wow." Shayde said, truly speechless. She would have expected Dominic and Letty to break up but she would have never guessed either girl would take off and leave the crew.

"Let's go inside and make sure they're not plotting something that we'll be taking the rap for, shall we?" Dominic asked, getting up to get another beer. "I know the boys will be so happy to see you." He said.

"Yeah, Kaidyn's pretty hyped, no telling what she can drag them boys into." Shayde laughed climbing the stairs to the trailer.

"SHAYDE!" Jesse exclaimed excitedly, getting up to hug her.

"Jesse!' Shayde laughed and hugged him. "Hey V, Leon. How's it going?" She gave them a hug from behind as she made her way to the small round table.

"Good to see ya girl." Leon nodded.

"Brian, this is Shayde and …"Dominic started to introduce the two.

"Kaidyn. I met them earlier." Brian grinned.

"He gave me a ride when my car broke down." Kaidyn nodded with a smile.

"That's Brian, always bein the good Samaritan." Vince commented under his breath.

"Did you guys get the tire changed?" Brian asked with concern and looking at Shayde.

"Yeah, thanks for helping her out earlier." Shayde smiled with a nod.

"So come on, guys, I wanna see those cars of yours!" Kaidyn pulled at Leon's hand.

"Oh, hell, Shay, have you ever thought to check into some ADD meds for this girl?" Leon joked as he got up reluctantly.

"This is Kaidyn we're talking about, they wouldn't help." Shayde joked making them all laugh.

"You racing tomorrow?" Jesse asked Kaidyn as she led the boys back outside.

"I'm planning to. But don't bring it up in front of Shay, she'll give birth to a baby cow." Kaidyn said sarcastically as Vince made a low 'mooing' sound, making Kaidyn slap him. "Shut up. She'll have a fit. She hates me racing." She complained.

"Well, are you a good driver? Does she have reason to want to keep you off the track?" Vince raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Oh you haven't changed one bit, have you?" Kaidyn asked, rolling her eyes.

"Says the pot to the kettle." Vince remarked back.

"V, how old are you?" Leon hissed as Jesse and Kaidyn were on the other side of Leon's car talking about it.

"Hey, I'm just havin some fun." He grinned innocently. "She grew up. And did you see Shay? Holy Hell." Vince whispered back.

"Yeah, they're smoking all right." Leon nodded in agreement.

"So, you are the famous Brian O'Connor I heard about. I don't know whether to kick your ass for lying to one of my good friends or to kiss you for saving their lives." Shayde held Brian's gaze as Dominic went outside to get the cooler.

"You can do them both as long as you do it that same order." Brian gave her a boyish grin.

"Ha-ha. And you have a sense of humor. Very nice." Shayde nodded with approval. Brian looked down and fiddled with the top of his beer.

A/N: Please be kind and leave a review! I have a small addiction to reviews and would be very grateful if you could leave one! Thanks so much for reading! Cheer


	2. Chapter 2

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This chapter is going to be bringing someone in that is famous. I have no rights nor do I own any rights to this person mentioned in this story. It is for fictional writing purposes only.

"Oh come on, Shay, with a car this good it's a sin _not _to race it." Kaidyn stomped her foot like a three year old throwing a temper tantrum. It was the next morning, barely even 10 am and all around the girls you could hear the engines revving and already going full force.

"Well, I don't think God would mind you sitting this one out." Shayde replied sarcastically.

"I can't believe you! You'll let me do all those sick beauty pageants where I have to endure catty girls and act as stuck up as a stick but you won't let me race my own car? There is something seriously wrong here." Kaidyn objected, so frustrated that she could scream. It wouldn't matter, she thought gloomily, all the engines revving would drown out her voice and it'd be pointless anyway.

"Oh come on, you are such the drama queen. For the next talent portion of those stuck up as sticks pageants, you should do a dramatic skit." Shayde smiled sweetly as she uncovered her car.

"I'm 18, ya know. I can do as please." Kaidyn gave it one last attempt to try to persuade her sister. She wasn't one to give in easily. Unfortunately neither was her sister.

"You might be 18 but remember those two years of school you didn't go to and remember that piece of paper called a contract you signed promising you would complete school and until it's finished, the car is mine? That's legally standing in a court. But you do as you please." Shayde shrugged, determined that she was going to win this one.

"Augh. You frustrate me to no end sometimes." Kaidyn threw up her hands and went back in her trailer to get dressed. She looked outside the tiny window to see Shayde still working on getting her car ready.

"Hey Jess, it's me. I told you she wouldn't let me do it. So can you set up that race for me closer to the middle of the day? She'll be working then and I can leave without her ever knowing." Kaidyn smiled as she put on her lip gloss.

"You sure you want to run today?" Jesse's shaky voice came across her phone.

"Yeah, I am. You sure you don't mind helping me out?" She asked, pulling on some capris and a baby blue tube top that brought out her eyes. She put her hair in a braid and tied it off with a matching ribbon.

"Girl, it's no problem. You keep it on down low from Dom and the boys and I'll keep in on the dl from Shay. It's all good. I'll call you with the time you're set to go, k?" He asked.

"Perfect." Kaidyn clapped her hands together out of excitement.

"KK, I'm so glad you are back." Jesse said with a grateful tone in his voice. He had a rough time with Letty and Mia being gone and after the heists so getting his old friend back meant all the world to him.

"I'm glad to get to be back around you too, Jess." She smiled, moments of the past flashing through her head. Those were quickly interrupted when she heard the door open. "Ok, I gotta go. See ya soon." She whispered.

"Let's do this, team Toretto!" Leon said with excitement in the small huddle they were having. He wanted to make sure the crew was nice and pumped up so they'd bring home a lot of badly needed cash.

"Let's take 'em all for what they got."Dominic nodded. They all got in their cars and headed towards the fields to line up to race.

"I'm gonna win." Brian told himself as he always did. It was tradition to say that to himself for good luck before every race. He knew it was a stupid one but the few races that he lost when he didn't do that told him to stop caring about stupidity and just say it. So he did. He revved the engine and moved up to the guy with the flags.

"Hey white boy, wanna race?" Shayde held down her sunglasses and peered over the top of them.

"Look who it is." He smiled back. "I don't know. I'd hate to beat you and then never get a chance to know you." He said with more confidence than he felt. Judging by what Dominic had said, she had a monster of an engine in her car and could take most people if she wanted to. Dominic had taught her all that she knew about racing so Brian believed she was good.

"So confident, so naïve. Poor boy. I'll take you and smoke you like the roasted chicken I plan on cooking the boys for dinner. What you wanna bet?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"How about a date?" he asked, it slipping out before he even realized he said it. He wasn't sure how she was going to react to that one.

"A date? Hmm, I don't know. All right, you win, its' a date. If I win, you have to hang out with me in the sun all day and sell Sparco stuff. You can be my sales pitcher since you are such a worldly known racer. It'll be good for business." She smiled. Her proposition made Brian smile and laugh. That was a win win either way in his book.

"All right, you are on. But I'm telling you, you're going to lose. So be ready." He gave her a nod as they neared the starting line.

"Bring it on, blue eyes." She nodded back, revving her engine and spinning the tires to make sure they ha d the right traction.

"Oh, it's been brought, white boy." Shayde revved her engine laughing at Brian's grin. He was so cocky, she thought. "You have no idea." She clicked her teeth. She turned up her music and got into her zone focusing only on the blacktop strip ahead of her. She turned up "Bleed it out" by Linkin Park and put both hands on the steering wheel.

"Ready, set, go!" The guy yelled, dropping the flag. Both of the car's tires squealed as they took off in a blur of blue and orange. Brian took the early lead, not wanting to use the juice if he didn't have to. The edge of the tar strip was fast approaching and he debated using it or not. He decided against it as he was about to be at the end, he already had her. He was far ahead of her now. All of a sudden, the blur of her blue car came by at the last second, winning.

"You gotta be kiddin me." He said, his blue eyes wide with astonishment. It was a good thing he hadn't bid money, Dominic would hand his ass to him, he thought. He followed her car over to the sandy edge, a bit away from the crowd so they could talk.

"How many more races do you have for today?" Shayde asked, sitting on the top of her car's hood.

"I'm not scheduled for anything today. It was just a play day." Brian said, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Good, cause I have to be work in about twenty minutes. Or I guess I should say _we_ need to be to work." Shayde laughed.

"Yeah, that would be we. I'm a man of my word." Brian grinned boyishly. "Can I buy you a bite to eat before we head over there?" He offered.

"Sure, why not. I'll follow you." Shayde nodded. After stopping at one of the fair like food trailers, the two sat down at a round table set up on the side of the trailer.

"This is the healthiest I have ate in a long time." Brian looked at the eggs that were somewhat greasy and laughed sarcastically.

"I bet with those boys you're living with." Shayde laughed in agreement. "So is Dom doing okay with Letty and Mia gone?" She asked.

"Yeah, actually he is doing much better than what any of us thought he would be doing." Brian turned serious.

"That's good." Shayde nodded, stirring around her eggs. This was not the place to start following the three meals a day rule she thought. They finished up and headed over to Shayde's table. "All right, here ya go." Shayde handed him a t-shirt.

"Oh so I gotta wear the attire too huh? I see how it is." Brian gave a boyish grin. He took off his shirt and put the white Sparco shirt on. Shayde tried to ignore looking at his torso but found it too easy to sneak in a glance. She even took a second glance.

"Hey Kaidyn, keep focused on the end and visualize this win, okay?" Jesse asked, his hands shaking. He gave her those words of wisdom Leon had long ago given him. Kaidyn was checking her car over, giving it a last once over.

"I will. Thanks for coming to watch me race." She smiled gratefully.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. I wanna see what Shay has taught you." Leon nodded.

"Haha." Kaidyn gave an uncomfortable smile, not willing to risk telling Leon she didn't approve of her racing. "You know this is more than just a straight stretch, right?" He asked with concern. He knew racers at race wars were experienced when they took on the full track and not just the straight strip of blacktop. She nodded. He felt like he needed to give her some advice since he wasn't sure what her abilities were.

"Take that turn tight and keep on the outside so the other person can't pass you." Vince said, throwing in his last minute advice.

"Aw, V, you came to watch me race?" She smiled, seriously shocked.

"Well, that's what I came to race wars for, Blondie." He replied, not admitting he was doing something nice.

"Well, at least you're here. Thank you." She gave a final wave before getting in line.

"Let's go little girl. You sure your pockets are deep enough to run with me?" The guy asked in a condescending tone.

"What you want to run for? 4 large? 5 large?" She asked, holding up a thick wad of cash as they both coasted towards the front.

"I say 2 large. There's no way you got 4 or 5." The guy stared at her with disbelief. "I'm not taking any chances of you short changing me so we'll go 2 large." He nodded, not going to admit that amount she had thrown out there was more than he was used to.

"Suit yourself. Makes no difference to me." Kaidyn shrugged, now at the starting line.

"Let's go then." He nodded, holding up his money wad. The engines revved and Kaidyn gave an unsure look to Jesse and Leon. She shook her shoulders as if to shake off her nervousness physically. She sat back and did one last go over, then kept her eyes on the guy waiting to drop the flag.

"Car on the left ready?" he asked, using his flag to point at the red skyline. The guy nodded. "Car on the right ready?" He asked, looking at Kaidyn.

"Ready." She sat back, her foot itching to floor the pedal.

"Go!" The guy yelled dropping the flag. Both cars spun up dust as the crowd waited anxiously. Kaidyn started out ahead, feeling good about the start. She shifted, checking her rearview mirror. She knew the corner was coming up and she pulled to the outer side like she had been told to do. She was making the turn and had the car under control when the guy came right up behind her, clipping her rear end.

"Shit!" She yelled as the car started flailing out of control. She was biting her lower lip, her body tense as the car went flying sideways with the tires squealing on the blacktop tar. She thanked her lucky stars she had not yet hit her NOS button and tried to get control of the car back. She ended up hitting a stack of sand barrels. The car sputtered and died.

"SHIT!" Vince yelled, grabbing Leon by the arm.

"Tell me that was not Kaidyn!" Dominic yelled, taking off at the same pace with Vince, Leon, and Jesse.

"It was Dom, it was!" Leon said.

"Jess, go get Shay at the Sparco table!" Dominic commanded. "Oh, she's in so much trouble."Dominic shook his head, knowing Shayde was going to kill her sister.

"Man, he clipped her, it wasn't her fault."Leon growled. "She was in the clear to make that turn. He had plenty of room." He said.  
"Yeah, she did it right, I know." Dominic hustled his way past the crowd. "I'll deal with him in a minute, let's just make sure she's all right." He said with a frown. It was in close to sunset but the hot LA sun was still beating down like it was an inferno.

"Kaidyn, you okay?" Jesse pushed past the safety crew.

"Yes, I'm fine." She said, trying to get her legs to stand on their own. She was just a bit shaky.

"I knew you couldn't drive. Pay up Goldie locks." The guy sauntered over cockily.

"She wouldn't have lost if you had stayed on your own side. Everyone saw you do that shit." Leon growled, getting in the guys face.

"She was too far over, talk to your girl." The guy stared him down.

"Just take your money." Kaidyn said as Jesse put his arm around her to help her walk.

"Winning's winning. Isn't that right, Toretto?"The guy grinned like the Cheshire cat as he took the money from her and then walked off. Dominic nodded to Leon and Vince and took off after him.

"Oh my god, my stupid car is jacked all to hell up." Kaidyn moaned with despair. "Can this get any worse?" She mumbled as the people watching the race clapped for her, relieved she wasn't injured, as she and Jesse walked by them.

"It could, it could." Jesse sighed, seeing Shayde running over towards them.

"Kaidyn, what the hell were you thinking?" Shayde asked, her arms folded.

"I woulda won that stupid race if he hadn't clipped me!" Kaidyn screeched defensively.

"But you didn't and now you're car's all jacked up, Genius." Shayde replied, her arms folded and her face bright red. Those words stung Kaidyn so bad it brought tears to her eyes. She was thankful she had 

on her big oversized glasses to keep from showing everyone. It was one thing to deserve to be in trouble but to yell at her in public was a new thing for Shayde to do. It was embarrassing. She was quiet the rest of the way back to camp.

"God, that bumper is toast!" Shayde hung up her phone in disgust to herself.

"We can get it fixed by tomorrow, can't we?" Kaidyn asked meekly, still not giving up on redeeming herself.

"You frustrate me sometimes to no end." Shayde threw up her hands and walked inside her trailer, leaving Kaidyn to sulk outside.

"Hey Short stuff, how's it going?" A voice asked, chipper and cheerful, kicking the small blonde.

"Not well. Good to see you, Danica." Kaidyn got up and hugged her cousin without any enthusiasm. Not many people could say a famous Indy car driver was their cousin.

"Wow, I'm happy to see you too." Danica laughed, sitting down beside her baby cousin. "Hey, that guy totally clipped you. It wasn't you." She nodded.

"Yeah, but the car is still damaged and my sister is hella pissed." Kaidyn sighed.

"I'll talk to her. Don't worry, I'll get her to lighten up." Danica patted her knee and got up to go inside.

"Knock knock." She called rapping on the trailer door.

"Oh my god, I didn't think you'd make it here after all that at Indy the other day!" Shayde opened her arms to give her a hug with a big smile.

"Well, of course I was gonna make wars, crazy woman. I'll deal with ol boy at the next race" Danica laughed, her sunglasses on top of her head, speaking of the guy that had put her out of the race at the Indianapolis 500. "How's it goin, Babe?" she asked.

"Well if you call Kaidyn about to get beat okay, then it's going okay." Shayde laughed. "I told her not to go racing and I thought I could trust her. And what is the first thing she went and did?" Shayde sighed, not happy.

"You need to lighten up on that girl. You know we all have racing in our blood." Danica rolled her eyes.

"You need to shut the hell up." Shayde said jokingly."Quit taking up for her. You're supposed to be on my side." She joked.

"I'll fix her car if you promise to let her race tomorrow." Danica held up her chin, waiting for an answer.

"We'll see. No promises." Shayde said, sighing and thinking about giving in.

A/N: Please, please, please review! It really helps a writer to grow to get some suggestions and know that their stories are being read and it also gives them a feel of how the story is being perceived and what the people reading it think about it, good or bad. As always, I am grateful for you reading!! Cheer


	3. Chapter 3

Blacktop Obsession chapter 3

"Hello, anybody home?" Roman Pearce yelled at the top of his lungs, knocking on the trailer's door.

"Rome, come on, man, we don't even know if this is their trailer." Tej shook his head, embarrassed at how loud Roman was being.

"Homie, it gots to be one of them. Sides I am hungry." Roman said, taking a deep breath and getting irritated no one was answering."I mean, the sooner we find them, the sooner I can eat." Roman grinned and rubbed his stomach.

"You and your damn eatin." Tej complained, following Roman to the next trailer. He was determined, he had to give him that. "Yo man, I'ma go to this little merchandise thing and ask if they know of him." Tej nodded, taking off without waiting for an answer. Anything was better than being embarrassed by Roman's obnoxious knocking.

"Hello, anybody home?!" Roman rapped on the next trailer's door as he craned his neck to try to look in the window.

"Nope, no one here." A voice called back.

"Okay, thanks." Roman jumped off the steps, his mind obviously not in the right place. He walked a few yards and then stopped, realizing someone _**was**_ there. "Wait a minute, someone is there." He climbed back up the three steps and knocked again.

"Wow, you're blonder than I am." Kaidyn opened the door, her long hair in pigtails and wearing some addidas sweats and a black sports bra. She stood in front of him looking like she was bothered to have opened the door.

"You cookin chili up in there?" Roman asked, sniffing, unphased by her appearance or by the joke she had just said.

"What's it to you. Who are you and what do you want?" Kaidyn asked, her arms folded as she leaned on the door.

"Wow, where is your manners?" Roman asked, eyeing the inside, still trying to figure out if she was cooking chili or not.

"Please excuse my mannerless friend. He's harmless, I promise." Tej walked up, grabbing Roman by the back of his shirt.  
"It's okay. I see he just needs to be fed and maybe watered." Kaidyn joked, making Tej laugh.

"I'm Tej Parker and this is my boy Roman Pearce." Tej nodded.

"Nice to meet you both." Kaidyn nodded.

"We're looking for a guy name Brian O'Connor. I know he's made a name for himself out here and wondered if you knew him." Tej explained.

"Yeah, he's a good friend of a good friend of mine." Kaidyn nodded. "You guys are welcome to the chili I made. His camp is right over there and they should be back any time. I think him and his crew are out with my sister right now." Kaidyn nodded, seeing no reason to not trust them.

"Yeah, some chili would be awesome. You got crackers?" Roman asked, nodding happily.

"Yes, have a seat out there and I'll bring you a bowl. Tej, would you like some?" She asked before going to get it.

"Nah, girl, I'm good, thanks." Tej nodded, putting his hands in his pockets. "Would you stop being so rude?" he asked in a harsh whisper while the two waited for her to come outside.

"I'm not bein rude. I'm bein nice to my stomach, man. It's gotta eat or you don't wanna know what's gonna happen." Roman defended himself.

"Whateva. Just tone it down." Tej shook his head. Kaidyn came out carrying a big bowl of steaming chili.

"Watch your step." Roman took her hand as she came down the tiny three steps.  
"It's okay, I'm used to going down stairs in stilettos, this is nothing." Kaidyn smiled reassuringly.

"Nah, I was just worried you'd spill that chili."Roman shook his head, his eyes wide as she handed him over the big bowl.

"ROMAN."Tej rolled his eyes, hitting him in the back of the head.

"It's okay, I'm sure you haven't had time to send him to training school yet." Kaidyn grinned.

"Hey, that's just rude!" Roman objected, talking with his mouth full of chili.

"This yo car?" Tej asked, bending down to look at the color changing paint job.

"Yeah." She nodded, almost embarrassed to admit it. The whole accident still hadn't been discussed with Shayde. Luckily Dominic and his crew was a distraction for the time being for her.

"Looks like you had a rough meeting with a wall." Tej said, running his hand over the damaged front bumper.

"I was clipped in a race and hit a stack of sand barrels over 150 miles per hour." Kaidyn said, her face feeling warm with embarrassment.

"That sucks. I'm sorry." Tej shook his head, feeling her pain.

"You race, Blondie?" Roman asked, shocked.

"You already finished that whole bowl?" She asked, shocked at his appetite.

"Yeah. It was good. You can cook." He nodded.

"It was my sister that cooked it, I just watched over it and stirred it." She shrugged, not one to take credit for someone else's work.

"So you guys up for some mischief?" Dominic hung up his phone, grinning.

"Always, what you got?" Leon asked, having a good idea what Dominic was about to suggest.

"I got word we have a truck comin in that's loaded." He nodded, raising an eyebrow. This made the crew grin. It had been over three years since all that stuff had went down.

"Let's do it." Jesse nodded. Although he hadn't been there that particular day, he was well used to doing the heists. That day had been their last heist. To Dominic's knowledge, no other trucks had been popped by any other groups either as of lately. For a while there had been some copycat groups playing cat and mouse with the police. They never really were able to prove anything on Dominic or the crew because Brian had destroyed what physical evidence and files they had had on them. After they realized what little evidence they had was destroyed, the only person the police department had pursued was Brian for a long list of crimes. Brian and Roman had been able to work out a deal to clear those charges.

"Ya sure?" Dominic asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at each of the guys one by one.

"Let's go." Brian nodded, giving a mischievous grin as he did so.

"I'm with him, let's roll." Vince said, not wanting to waste any more time discussing it.

"All right, you heard V, let's go. You guys follow me." Dominic nodded, satisfied. He had been painfully needing a dose of adrenaline like a drug addict needed another hit ever since the day they were forced to stop the activity. For him, it wasn't the money. It was all about the adrenaline rush. He was deep in thought as his crew followed him to the underground garage. They all worked on uncovering the new rides Dominic had been working on and storing there.

"It's go time." Leon rubbed his hands together anxiously.

"I'm riding with you, if that is aight with you." Shayde grabbed her glasses and looked at Brian.

"You're going?" He asked, doing a doubletake.

"Of course I am, is that a problem?" She asked, flashing a movie star smile at his shock.

"No, no. It …. You just don't seem like the type to ….you know what, never mind." Brian shook his head, not even going to bother explaining.

"I do it for the thrill." She leaned over and whispered in his ear before getting in his car, leaving him speechless.

"Here, Arizona." Dominic tossed him a walkie talkie and got in his car. Brian got in his as well and started it up. There was a silence for a little bit of the way, then Shayde spoke, breaking it.

"So why's an ex-cop in on this?" She asked, her eyes on the scenery.

"Why not? I'm not wearing a badge now so there's no need to follow rules, right?" Brian's intense blue eyes seemed to shimmer in the hot sun as it began to set.

"I guess not. I just would figure you'd still have that whole morals and values thing goin." Shayde shrugged, locking her eyes with his.

"Oh, I have morals and values." Brian grinned, doing the 'stare and drive' on her. This made her laugh. In fact, Brian hadn't ever been able to do the 'stare and drive' to a girl without making them laugh.

"Might wanna watch the road." She nodded, still staring him down.

"I'd rather keep my eyes on something as pretty as you." He retorted. He had always been a ladies' man. Just then the walkie talkie made a fuzzy blip and it was Dominic.

"Okay guys. This is our truck. Brian take the lead." Dominic said, making Brian frown.

"Wwwwhat?" Brian asked, shaking the walkie to make sure he had heard right.  
"Take the lead. Up in front." Dominic said without hesitation and came across loud and clear.

"Dom, you sure about this?" Brian asked, not sure if Dominic had forgotten how this worked.

"DO IT NOW." Dominic boomed back. Brian looked at Shayde who smiled mischievously y as she grabbed her helmet from the back seat.

"I told you I like thrills." She smiled, putting it on. Brian pulled to the front while the others spanned out in typical formation. Shayde picked up the crossbow and began to prepare for her dose of adrenaline.

"Be careful." Brian couldn't help but say as she stood up and faced the trucker. He hoped this was going to be pulled off. He was a nervous wreck now. One wrong move on his part could throw her off. It was all on him at the moment to keep it steady so she could do her part.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!Cheer


	4. Chapter 4

Blacktop obsession chapter 4

"That was fun. You shoulda saw the look on that face of yours when Dom told you to take the lead." Shayde laughed, teasing Brian. They had made it back to their camp and it was beginning to thunder and you could tell that a storm was moving in. The air had that rainy smell to it that it had just before it was going to rain.

"Hey, don't be laughing at me, I have a sensitive heart." Brian joked.

"Yeah, I just bet you do." Shayde smiled. "Glad it's about to rain, maybe it'll cool off." She said, lifting up her long locks and letting her neck get some air.

"So, tell me. You one of those girls that melt in the rain?" Brian asked, staring at her intently.

"What, do I look like the wicked witch of the west?" Shayde asked, not knowing if he was being sarcastic or what.

"No, like you know, those girls that can't get wet cause it'll mess up their hair or make their make-up run?" Brian asked, taking his time walking back to the camp.

"Me? Haha. Um, no. Kaidyn isn't even like that." Shayde laughed, almost relieved that his comment wasn't intended the way she was thinking it was.

"Care to put that to the test and give me some proof?" Brian asked mischievously as the rain started to come down.

"What are you talking about?" Shayde asked, picking up the pace to get out of the rain.

"Let's just see how well you tolerate this so called rain." Brian grabbed her and kept her from walking.

"Ohh, Mr. Tough guy calls bluff, does he?" Shayde laughed, loving the smell of rain and his cologne. It was almost intoxicating. The lightning crashed and the thunder rolled, making them laugh even harder. Brian took his chance and leaned in to kiss her. After he pulled away, he walked with his arm around her in silence, enjoying it.

"Here, you might want to take my jacket." Brian nodded, realizing she had a white shirt on.

"Thanks. I'll just go change and bring it back to you." Shayde smiled thankfully. She noticed two cars outside her trailer and forgot all about enjoying this moment. "I'll be out in a minute." She nodded, hoping to not sound too hasty.

"Hey sis." Kaidyn smiled, stirring the chili. "You look a little drenched." She laughed. Shayde tried to smile back but looked at the two strange guys in her mobile trailer and couldn't help but wonder what the hell Kaidyn had done by inviting them in. Sensing that her sister was about to flip out on her, Kaidyn wasted no time with the introductions after clearing her throat. "This is Roman Pearce and Tej Parker, a few of Brian's friends from Miami." She nodded, biting her lip nervously.

"Nice to meet you. Brian's outside if you'd like to talk to him." Shayde tried to not sound too bitchy.

"Nice to meet you, thank you." Tej said, nodding. He could read people really well, it was one of his talents and it was a valuable one at that. He could tell this girl wasn't too happy with them being here.

"You really cook that chili?" Roman asked, standing up to Shayde as he passed her in the narrow space.

"Yes, I did." She replied, not moving out of his way the way most people would have if it was their personal space had been invaded.

"I'm lookin for a wife that can cook if you are interested. I mean, that shit, it was the bomb. I'd marry you just for your cookin skills." Roman grinned, rubbing his stomach.

"Let's go, Pearce. NOW." Tej pulled at him, knowing this girl didn't want to be messed with.

"Kaidyn Leigh, what have I told you about talking to strangers?" Shayde barely was able to wait till the door had closed to start yelling.

"They were Brian's friends. It wasn't like they were bad guys." Kaidyn said, knowing this argument was going to be won by Shayde. She hadn't learned to win very many arguments against Shayde. Yet.

"Kaidyn, I try to give you your space, try to let you do your thing, I try to not be too overprotective but seeing as how we have people after us, don't you think letting complete strangers in is a bad idea?" Shayde asked, not getting why her sister wasn't getting the idea through her head. It didn't seem that hard of a concept to her.

"Ok, ok, I get it. I do. I'm sorry." Kaidyn shrugged, looking her best to look apologetic.

"That's twice in two days I left you by yourself and you went and did something insane. Hope you like me being your shadow for the rest of wars." Shayde shrugged, hating to act like an uncool parent. But reality was that Kaidyn wasn't acting smart and she couldn't let her get herself into any more trouble than she already had.

"Knock knock." Danica rapped on the door and Kaidyn opened it, grateful that she was saved. Danica was closer to Shayde but she was quick to let Kaidyn get away with a lot and keep Shayde's anger at bay.

"Hey." Shayde nodded at her. "I'll be right back. I gotta change and get this jacket back to Brian." She muttered, not in a good mood anymore.

"What's her damage?" Danica whispered, pulling her long black hair up into a ponytail as if it were a nuisance.

"She's trippin on me. She said she's my shadow for the rest of wars. I can't be trusted." Kaidyn rolled her eyes.

"Well, we already knew that." Danica teased, ruffling her hair.

"Shut up." Kaidyn rolled her eyes some more. She was quiet, hearing Shayde come out of her room.

"Why you always trippin on this poor girl, cuz?" Danica asked, taking a bite of the chili from the big spoon on the stove. Shayde grabbed it and put it back on the small mobile stove.

"Why you always defending the girl?" Shayde retorted.

"Cause I can. She's my little cousin, it's my right." Danica laughed.

"Exactly _little _cousin, as in too little to make smart decisions. Tell her to keep her nose clean and I wouldn't have to be so bitchy." Shayde shrugged.

"Oh, that's it. I'm fixin you up with someone in my pit crew. You so need to get some." Danica folded her arms.

"I don't want a grease monkey, but thanks." Shayde shook her head.

"She doesn't want a grease monkey but she likes Brian." Kaidyn cackled holding her side from laughing so hard.

"Who's this Brian? Hmm?" she asked, her eyebrow raising. "You know he has to have the Danica Patrick stamp of approval before you go out with him, right?" Danica asked, grabbing an orange juice out of the fridge.

"Hardy har har." Shayde laughed sarcastic. The Danica Patrick stamp of approval was a long running joke between them ever since Danica had started doing commercials and racing.

"Ask your boy to go with us to the club and let's get going." Danica urged, handing Shayde her cell phone.

"No, I am not asking him to go. I don't even like him." Shayde shook her head although her cheeks were blushing a bit.

"Sure…." Both Danica and Kaidyn said and then burst into laughter.

"You're gonna be on my list if you don't quit encouraging her." Shayde warned to Danica while pointing a finger at her.

"I'm shaking, oh my god, I'm shaking." She held up a hand and pretended to be shaking.

"I'll be right back." Shayde shook her head, carrying Brian's jacket in her arm.

"Okay, show me which one he is." Danica said, both her and Kaidyn bending down to look out the window that was by the little eating table.

"The one with the blue eyes." Kaidyn grinned.

"I can see her with him. He's cute enough for her. Should we warn him about what he's getting in to?" Danica asked, making Kaidyn laugh.

"I'll just be happy if it goes anywhere." Kaidyn nodded, saying her prayers. Shayde hadn't dated in what seemed like years and Kaidyn couldn't help but think it was due to Shayde having to take care of her. That made her feel guilty but Shayde consistently swore that it was just her choice and it had nothing to do with Kaidyn.

"Well, we'll just make it our mission to make sure it _does_ go somewhere, won't we?" Danica's eyes glimmered with mischief. "Come on." She said, taking Kaidyn's hand. "Let's go see what we can do." She nodded. Kaidyn smiled. Her cousin was the coolest person she knew besides her sister.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this." Shayde shook her head. It was the next day and she was dressed in a white dress that contrasted nicely with her dark skin. She had taken the time to do her make- up and fix her hair. Danica laughed.

"Well, it was him or my crew member so I think you made the right choice." Danica shrugged. "She'll be fine with me. You go, I'll stay and play babysitter." She pushed her out the door and waved to Brian, who was sitting in his car, waiting on her. He waved back.

"I'm going to tell her you said that. Then she'll be pissy with you too." Shayde grumbled.

"Nah, I'm her favorite cousin. GO." Danica retorted and pointed out the door. "What, do I have to pick you up and carry you over there too?" She complained.

"No, good grief. If I didn't know any better, I would say you and my sister are up to something." Shayde remarked, grabbing her phone and walking out. She swore if Danica was anymore persistent she would be falling down the steps.

"Is she gone?" Kaidyn asked, coming out of her end of the trailer. She had taken extra time to get ready for the race wars tonight. She had curled her hair and pulled it up into a loose ponytail and had put on a red tank top with a black leather mini skirt. She had borrowed Danica's lace up stilettos that laced up to her knees.

"Yuuuupppppp…" Danica drew out her words, watching the car pull out of the drive way. "She's outta here. You look hot." She complimented.

"You sure I don't look like a racer chaser?" She asked, not feeling all that confident.

"Hell no. Trust me, I've _seen_ my share of racer chicks." She said with conviction. Being one of the few known female racers had its good and bad points. The racer skanks were definitely not a good thing on the racing circuit. "Those feel good enough to drive in?" She asked.

"Yup. " Kaidyn grinned.

"Good, let's go get that punk back for clippin ya, baby girl." She grinned evilly. One thing she was known for was her temper and she never let someone who did something wrong to her or her family go without being addressed.

"Let's do this." Kaidyn said, more than ready for tonight. Kaidyn had convinced Tej to talk to Brian and persuade him to take her to the farthest restaurant away from where there were at that was possible. It was going to be a day of race wars not to be forgotten any time soon.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, guys. Hope you like how this one is going. I appreciate you reading and reviewing. Much love and I gotta say it is great to be back!! Cheer


	5. Chapter 5

Blacktop obsession chapter 5

"Show me which one he is." Danica said, nonchalantly looking around at the racer crowd. The girls were in the heart of where the best of the racers were matched up.

"Over there on the yellow car's hood." Kaidyn nodded, hating to feel like a school girl who went to tattle to her older sibling.

"Smile. This is gonna be fun." Danica laughed, elbowing her. "Stay right here and be ready for my cue." She said, taking off without waiting on a reply from her cousin.

"Hey, aren't you Danica Patrick?" The guy gave her a nod as she walked by.

"Yeah, I sure am." She smiled, turning on her charm.

"What would _you _be doing here at wars?" The obnoxious guy asked, taking a drink of his Red Bull.

"I started on the blacktop before I hit the circuit. Betcha didn't know that huh?" She asked, circling his car, pretending to be impressed. "This your car?" She asked, looking him in the eyes. _Sucker_, she thought.

"Yeah, it's one of the fastest here." He bragged, just like she expected him to. She was glad he was taking the bait and executing her plan well.

"It's okay. My car's nicer. And ten times faster, I'd be willing to bet." She said matter of factly.

"I doubt it. Wanna race and find out?" He asked, shaking his head.

"You wanna race my car? I'm not sure you can handle it." Danica said, looking concerned for his benefit.

"Let's race. I can take you. You can't win the Indy 500, much less on this blacktop. I'm not really a fan of yours." He said, becoming obnoxious. Danica shrugged.

"I get paid to be here, can you say as much? I get paid to be at home asleep, I get paid to do what I want in life. After your little raceland here shuts down, what do you get paid to do?" She asked, her tone still the same. She wasn't going to let him throw her off of her plan.

"Ha-ha. None of your business, this is all about tonight." He bantered back.

"Exactly, so do you want to race my car or not?" She asked, arms folded.

"Let's go. See ya at the starting line." He nodded, starting to get up.

"Hold up, let's discuss this a bit more before we line up. How much you willing to throw away? You might want to be careful not to exceed your daily limit." She said coolly.

"There IS no daily limit with me, baby. I'ma rockstar." He nodded confidently.

"Good, let's go for 4 large, shall we?" She asked, eyes focused on him.

"All right, no problem." He said, getting in his car. "Before we make that official, you might wanna hear the roar of my engine." He said, starting it up.

"Oh baby, please. You're just like all the rest of the guys, you like to brag that it's bigger than what it is. Those who gotta have big toys turn out to be little sized boys. Is that what you are?" She asked, getting the crowd to ohh and ahh.

"She served you!"Someone yelled.

"Okay, baby, stop running that pretty mouth of yours and let's get this race going. Bring that car on." He said, holding up his money.

"Since you so confident, let's kick it another nickel, shall we?" She asked, holding up her money.

"I'm good wit that." He nodded.

"All right, I'll get my car to the line. Just so the crowd hears you, you sure you want to race my car?" she asked, giving him one last chance to back out.

"Bring it on. I'm tired of talkin." He complained.

"There it comes now." She nodded, folding her arms. Kaidyn pulled up to the line, buckled in.

"Aw, hell no!" He said, shaking his head. "I said I'd race you." He objected. "I already took her money." He grinned.

"No, you _stole _her money by clippin her." Danica corrected. "But that's a whole other discussion, boy. You just said in front of our fellow racers here that you'd race my _car_."She smiled triumphantly. "She's going to beat you. Cause you won't have a chance to even get close enough to clip her this time." She nodded, leaning down on the guy's window. "That is, unless you're backing out." She shrugged. "It wouldn't be very becoming on a big, tough racer." She whispered with a grin.

"Fine, let's do this." The guy growled, knowing he had been taken.

"Danica, want to count it off?" The officiator asked. It was obvious he was a fan of hers the way he eyed her.

"I'd love the honor. Thank you. "She smiled, winking at the guy she had just set up. He just glared at her. "Ready, set, go!" She dropped her arms without much wait. She nodded happily as Kaidyn took the early lead and kept it.

"Come on, what you got baby?!" Kaidyn asked as she shifted, swallowing and getting ready for the upcoming turn. He was pretty far behind her but he was catching up fast. "Focus." She told herself. She decided to quit watching the rearview mirror and concentrate on pulling off this turn. It was hard to get back in a car after you had crashed it and her palms were feeling a bit nervous. She made the turn and 

breathed a sigh of relief. She looked over and to her dismay, there he was. It was homestretch now and she gulped. This was it. She couldn't let herself down or her cousin, who just so happened to be the queen of racing.

"Shay is gonna kill me!"She yelled out to herself as she punched the NOS button. Hell, for that matter, Danica might kill her too. She wasn't allowed to use NOS and her car didn't have any. But Danica's car had it and though she had never used it before, it was too late to back out now. It was on. She had never felt such an adrenaline rush in her entire lifetime. Everything was passing by in one colorful blur. She felt like she hadn't taken a breath since she had hit that button. It seemed only seconds later she was at the finish line and waiting for the other racer to pull in.

"This is bullshit." He pulled in, staring her down.

"Pay the girl and admit you got beat by a girl. You started it, she finished, it's all over as of now." Danica ordered. Kaidyn got out with an intoxicated smile on her face and walked over to his car. She almost felt dizzy from the rush she had just gotten. There was no feeling to compare to using the NOS she thought to herself.

"Nice doin business with you." Kaidyn nodded.

"Bitch." He muttered as the two girls started to walk away.

"What was that? You wanna repeat that?" Danica asked, turning back around rather quickly.

"I said she's a bitch. You got something to say about it?" He asked, staring her down. The two were nose to nose now. Danica reached out and punched him without any warning.

"Who's the bitch now?" She asked, walking off. He started to go after her but was stopped by one of his crew mates.

"She's not worth it man. She'll win so just let it go." He reasoned with him.  
"You're lucky, that's all I gotta say." He yelled after her.

"Lucky is the fact I let you live. Now shut up and go home and change your diaper." Danica called over her shoulder, not bothering to turn around.

"You are funny as hell." Kaidyn laughed, shaking her head.

"We'll have to talk about using my NOS later, Missy." She shook her head. "For now, I'm gonna let you enjoy the high." She smiled, getting a mischievous grin out of Kaidyn.

"Yeah, orrr you could just happen to forget about it just this once." Kaidyn laughed, looking hopeful.

"Yeah, you think? I'll have to think that one over long and hard." She shook her head, putting an arm around her cousin. "Come on. Let's go get nice and drunk so your sister can pretend to be mad at us so she can change the subject of talking about her date." Danica proposed.

"Sounds good to me." Kaidyn grinned. They went back to the campgrounds to sit out under the sky by the bonfire Danica had started.

"So you ever gonna be done with all that community service crap?" She asked, popping open a beer.

"Nah, probably not." Kaidyn looked down, fiddling with the pull tab thing on the beer can. She had gotten in so much trouble with her older brother that she wasn't sure she'd ever _not_ answer to someone.

"Have you had any problems out of him lately?" She asked, trying to ask without much of a concerned tone in her voice. She knew it was a touchy subject with her and Shayde.

"No, not as of lately, thank goodness." Kaidyn shifted uncomfortably.  
"Wonder how Shay's doing right about now?" Danica mused, knowing it was time to switch the subject.

"Probably putting blue eyes under the Shayde Sutton Spell of love." Kaidyn giggled girlishly.

"I know. I don't know how she does it. I try to put some guy under a spell and all I get is what's it like to race this car or that car or have you met so and so." Danica laughed.

"You girls want some company?" Roman called out from Dominic's camp across the way.

"Only if you got beer." Danica called back.

"Oh I got you." Roman nodded, walking over shirtless. Tej was behind him.

"I see you are out walking this thing, huh?" Kaidyn joked to Tej.

"Yeah. You could call it that." Tej nodded with a grin, his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, that's it. Her cousin or not, it's on now, little girl!" Roman pulled out a super soaker from behind his back and started shooting Kaidyn, making her scream.

"Tej! Help me!" Kaidyn yelled, getting up to take off running.

"Roman! Stop!" Tej yelled, reaching over for the gun. Roman took off after Kaidyn.

"Nah, homie. She keeps referencing me to a dog or some kind of an animal or shit so she gots to get what's comin." Roman yelled, staring at Kaidyn, who was behind a tree. He played peek a boo with her, going one way and then the other. "Oh, girl. I'ma getcha no matter which way so pick one. I'm Mr. Roman Pearce, you can't outrun me." He laughed in his ha-haha-ha laugh he was so well known for.

"Put the water down and I'll feed you." Kaidyn promised, her big blue eyes intently watching him.

"Yeah, right." He said with doubt.

"I will. I have some fried chicken Shay made on the stove. I promise." Kaidyn said, praying she didn't get sprayed.

"Aight. So let's go. You in front." Roman grabbed her and put the tip of the supersoaker in her back. "One false move and you're history." He nudged her.

"All right. All right." She laughed, not able to keep from cracking up. He didn't play when it came to his food. This astonished her. They walked by Tej and Danica. "He's got me hostage in case anyone cares." She laughed.

"She betta have fried chicken up in there." Roman shook his head as he kept her walking. "Or I'll hold her down and drench her." He threatened to Danica.

"Cool. Just make sure to take my shoes off of her body before you do that, okay?" She asked, nodding and taking a drink as she sat in the lawn chair calmly.

"I'll try to remember but I can't make no guarantees." He called as they went into the trailer.

"Cool. I'll try to remember not to beat you down if you don't." Danica called after him.


	6. Chapter 6

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 6

"So what is it about you that seems so mysterious?" Brian asked Shayde, staring into her dark eyes as they shared a bottle of wine.

"What do you mean?" Shayde asked, sitting up and straightening out her napkin.

"You just have these eyes that seem to have a story about them. I mean, they almost look gold." Brian said, staring her in her eyes.

"I think it's the dark lighting." Shayde smiled, playing with her glass and looking down.

"Nah, it's like they have a story to tell." Brian said, shaking his head."So, what's your story?" He asked, grinning at her sincerely. He was quite taken with her and Dominic wasn't able to tell him enough about her.

"You think?" Shayde asked, not knowing how to respond to that.

"Yeah. You all right?" Brian asked, hoping he hadn't startled her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Shayde asked, shrugging.

"I don't know. I can get a good read on people pretty well. I could be wrong." Brian flashed her one of his 'killer' smiles.

"There's always a first time for everything, you never know."Shayde said, almost feeling like her guard needed to be put back up with this guy. Not that she had let it down, she thought to herself defensively.

"So, you racin tomorrow?" Brian asked, seeing her uptightness, changed the subject.

"Why you want to win your money back?" She asked coyly with a smile.

"Nah." Brian laughed at her wit. "For me, racing is for the adrenaline and winning is for respect." Brian grinned, looking down at his plate that had just been put in front of him.

"Respect huh? You must get a lot of respect then. I hear you win about every race you race in." Shayde sat back and smiled at him.

"I wouldn't say I win _that _much. " He grinned modestly.

"Not all that much but you're pretty well known from what I hear from Dom." Shayde smiled. It was now dark and the two of them ate in silence for a bit. She looked out the window the two were sitting in front of, loving the small town they were in. It was probably the closest thing to what a ghost town was right before it went to ghost town status. It had one street, the street they were on, and it was of course, called Main Street. There was the restaurant, the pharmacy, and an automotive shop on this street. The wide window to the restaurant made a very romantic scene and she was having a great time.

"So, do you just travel around all the time and race or what is it you do?" Brian asked, hoping he wasn't prying too much. Dominic hadn't given her much information on her and he was itching to know something about this girl that was mesmerizing him.

"Well, I work for Sparco, and I do a lot of traveling that way. I'm an independent vendor so I can travel with my sister when she does her pageants that she does." Shayde said, taking a drink.

"You two are like night and day." Brian mused, with a laugh.

"You can say that again. That's for sure." Shayde had to laugh at that one. You would never catch her in any kind of beauty pageant. She didn't see why her sister liked them so much. She sure didn't need some trophy and sash to tell her that she was beautiful. But that was a whole other debate, Shayde sighed.

"Duck!" The next thing she heard was Brian yelling as bullets sprayed past the two of them, shattering the big pane of glass they were sitting in front of. Brian, breathing heavy, looked at Shayde, who was knocked on her back. He scooted over to her and pulled her back behind a wall. "Shayde, you okay?" He asked, holding her in his arms, looking for a bullet hole. She wasn't responding. Brian wiped the blood off of his face with his elbow as he started to undo her shirt.

"I'm okay."Shayde said weakly, having a hard time getting some air.

"Did it hit you?" Brian asked, supporting her head. "Shay, talk to me." He said, getting out his cell phone.

"Wow, if the first date is like this, how will you top the first one?" She asked with a slight smile, making Brian grin back at her. She sat up with Brian watching her closely. She looked down at her chest and saw the bullet hole in it. _No wonder the air had gotten knocked out of her_, she thought.

"We gotta get you an ambulance." Brian said, dialing a number on his cell phone.

"No, you don't. That's the last thing I want."Shayde shook her head with determination.

"Okay, I get it, you're a tough girl but you're hit. I don't know why you aren't bleeding but I know enough to know you need a doctor." Brian said, shaking his head vigorously.

"No, I don't. I'm not trying to be tough, thank you very much, I just know I don't need a doctor." She gave an exasperated look to Brian for his accusation. "See?" She asked, lifting up her shirt just enough to show her bullet proof vest.

"Do I wanna know why you were wearing that?" Brian asked, more confused about her now than ever.

"I have my reasons. Think shootouts happen often in this town?" She asked, getting up and dusting herself off.

"I don't know. We should get back to camp." Brian said, wondering who had done that and why. There were endless reasons as to why or who they could have been shooting at, he tried to calm his nerves. 

They drove back in complete silence, Brian checking his rearview mirror several times, trying to not be too paranoid.

"Damn, boy, what happened to your car?" Roman came barreling out of the trailer he had been chilling in. He shook his head and whistled as he surveyed the damage to his car. It had gotten hit by two bullets, seeing as how it had been parked out front of the restaurant they had been in.

"Yeah, so I noticed, cuz. Rome, is there something you want to tell me? I mean, is there a reason you came all the way from Miami to Cali?" Brian asked, his arms folded. Roman suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Rome…."Brian started in his 'don't mess with me' tone.

"Verone is out, homie. I wasn't goin to tell you til wars was over but looks like I shoulda told you sooner, cuz." Roman said, pacing now. His thoughts reflected back to when he had told Verone not 'to drop the soap' and Brian saying he'd be out.

"All right, all right." Brian processed this in his head. "Don't jump to conclusions just yet. He wouldn't have any idea I was here in Cali." Brian ran a hand through his hair.

"What about yo girl? She got a history? She got cops and robbers after her?" Roman asked, nodding to Shayde who was talking to Dominic in the trailer.

"No, why would you even think that?" Brian asked, appalled sounding.

"Well, if you don't think Verone would organize and hunt you down that quick, then its gotta be her, don't you think? See, Brian, that's your problem. You always get caught up wit them damn females that are always in trouble and need a hero to rescue them, brah. I'ma tell you, one of them is gonna get you killed." Roman said, his voice showing his frustration with Brian.

"Lower your voice and calm down. I don't need you messin things up for me by bein all loud." Brian whispered, his eyes wide to threaten Roman. He was right, maybe it did have something to do with her, she had already been wearing a bullet proof vest. "Look, I'll do some background on her and find out the deal, ok. You, you keep your mouth shut and don't ruin this for me, okay?" He asked, pointing Roman in the chest with a hard poke.

"Kaidyn, where you been? It's four in the morning. I've been calling your cell for hours." Shayde asked, fighting to keep from yelling. She hadn't been able to get a hold of her or Danica since she had gotten back from her date. She had been going out of her mind with worry.

"I just had a date. Damn." Kaidyn giggled, swaying as she walked.

"With who?" Shayde asked, raising an eyebrow. She made a mental note to call Danica once she got her obviously drunk sister to bed and out of hearing range to chew her out for letting her out of her site.

"Long story. His name is Twitch. He's on the crew of the bastard who clipped me but he's cool." Kaidyn babbled as she pulled off her shoes and tossed them on the trailer floor. She took down her hair and fluffed it.

"Are you serious? You'd be that stupid to go out with someone who screwed you over?" Shayde asked, her arms folded.

"Relax, sis. I won my money back and it's all good. I have to get to sleep now. I have to meet him at 9 in the morning to watch his friend's race." She smiled, her drunken eyes already asleep.

"Kaidyn, we gotta leave tomorrow." Shayde said, biting her lip. She hated running, she really did. Her sister was already passed out, so it was too late to try to talk sense into her tonight. She tried to lie down to go to sleep but laid there watching the clock and listened to it click each minute by. She got up with a frustrated sigh after about an hour of unsuccessfully trying to go to sleep and began to pick up things, and started to pack up their stuff.

A/n: And so it is. Some drama to ensue! Lol. Thanks to all of you reading and reviewing, you have no idea just how happy you make me. This is story is my new baby and I'm hoping it comes out and is even better than the Ultimate Betrayal. So, I'm really interested in hearing what you do and don't like and any other feedback you have for me. Peace!Cheer


	7. Chapter 7

Blacktop Obsession chapter 7

"Kaidyn, you really should be watching Dom's crew race, and not that punk's crew." Shayde said early the next morning, trying her hardest to convince the determined blonde not to go with this guy.

"I know, but how often is it that I get to watch other people race. He's really cool. What are you so uptight about?" She asked, her arms folded defensively.

"You know what, I'm not doing this today, just go. But be on your guard, k?" Shayde asked, shielding her eyes from the sun. She had a massive headache and the lack of sleep from the previous night was making her even jitterier. She started to pack up the things that was easy, such as the lawn chairs and what not.

"Why you packing up?" Kaidyn asked, chewing her lip. Shayde packing up early was making her nervous. She didn't want to have to up and move again. She was done with that. She hated moving.

"Race wars don't last forever, silly." Shayde hit her nose lightly with affection, trying hard to play it off. She would wait till she got back to tell her they were leaving out a day early.

"Yeah, true that. Ok, I'll be back in a few hours." Kaidyn nodded, grabbing some sunscreen to put on.

"Don't be gone too long, okay?" Shayde asked, blowing her hair out of her face.

"Never!" She called over her shoulder as she walked on the sandy road. She put her small backpack over her white tank top and headed towards the rumbling of engines. Her black cheer type shorts were already summoning the hot heat on her legs as she walked over the small hill to get to the strips of blacktop.

"Hello, hello, hello." Twitch looked her up and down approvingly as she leaned down to give him a quick, innocent hug.

"How are you? How's your boys doin today?" She asked, putting her sunglasses on as she sat down beside him. _Just stay on your guard, okay? _She couldn't get Shayde's voice out of her head with that warning. She wasn't sure why that was tugging at her so much.

"Good, good. We're two for two." Twitch nodded, looking nice and tan in his black muscle shirt. "You look fantastic." He noted.

"Thanks." She smiled, feeling slightly uncomfortable at how he was looking at her like she was dinner. She scolded herself mentally, telling herself that she was being over paranoid.

"Why don't we go back to your camp?" He asked, staring at her.

"It's all good. You need to be here to support the boys, right?" She asked, watching the cars line up. The metal makeshift bleachers were hot. She shifted uncomfortably.

"I can watch them anytime." He shrugged. "How's Shayde doin?" He asked, his eyes watching the cars now as well.

"Shay? She's fine." Kaidyn crossed her legs, feeling suddenly like something was not right. She had never told him her name was Shayde. She had only called her Shay. Only her friends and family knew she was called Shayde.

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"Hello." Brian answered his cell, only one eye open. He hadn't got much sleep and it was almost noon.

"Brian, it's Monica. You said you needed me to do you a favor?" She asked, looking at the message that had been left on her desk.

"Yeah, you said you owed me so I'm calling in that favor." He sat up, looking rather rough. He was definitely due for a shave.

"Yeah, yeah." She nodded, clicking her teeth.

"Did you find out that info I needed?" He asked, wanting to keep this conversation as short as possible. He got up and looked outside the trailer, squinting at how bright the sun was already beaming down.

"Yeah, I got it. A player like you already on the dating scene huh? Typical." She commented, getting a chuckle from Brian.

"So, her name is Shayde Sutton. I need to know if she has a prior record, anything basically you can find on her." Brian said.

"Blood type, social, date of birth, I got it." Monica joked, making Brian laugh.

"You get the idea." He said.

"You doing ok?" Monica asked as she scribbled down some information.

"Yeah, doing well, thanks. How about you?" He asked, just to be courteous.

"Good, thanks. You heard about Verone right?" She asked, searching her database.

"Yeah, Rome's shaking like a leaf." Brian laughed, getting Monica to smile at the visual on that one.

"Good, maybe it'll keep him in line." She nodded. "I need to call you back because I'm not getting anything on the first database so let me do some research, okay?" She asked, wondering why she wasn't pulling anything up.

"Yeah, no prob. I appreciate it." Brian nodded.

"No prob. I'd lay low if I were you, you guys are going to be one of the firsts he is going to come after." She warned.

"Yeah, I'm thinkin the same thing." Brian agreed. "Call me back." He said, hanging up. He looked in the mirror, grimacing at what he saw staring back at him. He stretched and decided to get up for the day.

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"You know, Twitch, I need to go to the restroom. I'll be right back." Kaidyn said, feeling almost dizzy. She didn't know why she was freaking out so much.

"Okay, babe. I'll be right here. Maybe we should go chill at your camp when you get back because it's gettin hella hot." He wiped the sweat off of his brow.

"Maybe." Kaidyn grabbed her backpack and high tailed it to the restroom. She shouldn't have drunk so much last night, she reckoned. Maybe that is why she was feeling a bit ill to her stomach. She checked her hair and make-up and decided she should head back to the camp. Sure, he could have asked around and found out her name that way but it just didn't feel right and the fact he kept asking to go back to her camp really made her nervous. She wasn't sure why he was being so pushy. She ducked around the corner, almost Charlie's angel like to make sure he wasn't around. To her disappointment, he was.

"Where ya goin?" Twitch asked, his hands in his pockets.

"I guess I got turned around. I do that a lot." Kaidyn giggled nervously.

"Well, it's over this way, girl. Come on." He said, putting an arm around her tightly.

"You know what, I think I drank too much last night. I need to head back." She tried to pull away and be honest with him.

"Well, good then, let me walk you." He gave a satisfied grin, starting to walk and almost pulling her with him.

"No, you should stay and watch your boys. I'll be fine." She tried to pull away. He grabbed her arm and the two looked like they were having a tug of war.

"I said, I'll go with you. What is your deal?" He asked, getting annoyed.

"I don't want you to go with me and if you don't let go I'm going to scream." She threatened, her sunburned face now throbbing since her anger had made the blood rush into her face.

"Oh, scream for me, baby. It's not like they'll hear you over the engines." He said, now putting a tight hand on the back of her neck like she was a prisoner.

"What is your deal?" She asked, giving in to walking, since she had no choice. She had that deer in a headlight look mixed with her chin being held up defiantly, she looked like she was panicking. That only made the guy smile even bigger.

"Don't worry about my deal, let's just go have some fun and talk." He pushed her ahead of him a bit, loosening his grip on her neck just enough for her to wiggle out of it and try to take off. "Oh no you don't, my little blonde princess." He hit her, making her head swirl a bit. She felt the blood gush from her nose. She became panicked enough that it caused her to go into what some people would call fight or flight. She kicked him hard enough in the right area that men couldn't be kicked in and she took off and ran. She ran so fast she thought her legs were going to give out on her.

"Shay, shay, we gotta go." She said, stumbling into her sister, who was just finishing packing up. She was breathing hard.

"What's the deal? What happened?" She asked, scurrying to get something to help her with the blood.

"We gotta go. That guy will be here soon lookin for me and let's just go and you can tell me you told me so later. LET'S JUST GO." She shook her head, breathing so hard that Shayde was sure she was going to hyperventilate.

"Calm down. I'm all packed, let's go. I won't say I told you so, let's just get out of here, okay? It's going to be fine, baby girl. I promise." She lifted her sister's chin up and told her reassuringly, looking her in the eyes for a moment before she loaded the last thing up.

"Where you guys goin?" Brian asked, stopping to look around at the barren campsite since it had been packed up.

"Well, wars are over, or almost over, I mean, I don't have any more races so I might as well head out, ya know?"She asked, her words spoken with pauses in them.

"Yeah? No more races huh?" Brian asked, his eyes looking like the most intense color of blue Shayde remembered ever seeing as he stared her down. "Is that really _the _reason you are leaving?" He asked, sounding like he wasn't convinced.

"What business of it is yours?" She asked, folding her arms, pissed that he would have the audacity to even ask that.

"Maybe I'm makin it my business." He shot back.

"Well, do me a favor and don't."She retorted hotly, her temper becoming more visible.

"Well, I did. And I am. So what you gonna do about it?" Brian asked, not getting a response for a minute.

"Whatever, Brian. Look, I'm a grown girl and can do what I damn well please. I am done with race wars and I'm leaving and that's all there is to it. I don't know what you are getting at or what you are trying to imply, but get over yourself, would you?" She asked hatefully.

"Race wars might be over tomorrow but I think you are leavin for a far different reason, _Shayde._" Brian said, emphasizing her name to make his point.

"And that would be what, since you seem to know it all when you obviously don't have a fucking clue, _Brian?_"She asked, knowing he had no clue on earth why she was really leaving. But she would humor him and give him a chance to make a fool out of himself if that was what he wanted.

"I say you're running from Verone." He said. She had already started for her truck, but stopped dead in her tracks. "See, I know more than you think." He said, his claim now validated.

A/N: Curious now? Leave a review, pretty pretty please! Thanks for reading! Cheer


	8. Chapter 8

Blacktop Obsession chapter 8

"Why would you say that?" Shayde asked, stopping dead in her movements. It was like her body froze. "Who the hell is Carter Verone?" She asked, knowing she wouldn't be able to pull this off. Brian wasn't stupid, he was just annoying and ….intoxicating. She knew it wasn't his fault he was who he was, but she had to keep her guard up.

"Come on, Shayde. Don't act like I'm dumb. I have resources. Now both of you get in Dom's trailer before you make a big mistake." Brian ordered, pointing to the trailer.

"Shay, let's get out of here!" Kaidyn stood up on the side of the passenger side of the truck and peered over the roof of it as she begged her to get in.

"You know as well as I do, Shayde, that if you get on that road, they'll find you quicker than you can blink." Brian still held his gaze with hers, her eyes narrowing at him being right. _Why did he have to be right_, she asked herself.

"Shay, he will be here anytime, let's go!"Kaidyn begged, tears in her eyes as she pleaded her to get in the truck, looking down the road that she had started down so happily earlier.

"Get your stuff and get in Dom's trailer." She said, looking down and not looking at Brian any longer.

"What? Why?" Kaidyn asked, her hand still over her nose.

"Just do it damn it. You hear that engine? Get a move on it!" Shayde ordered, grabbing a bag and pushing her sister towards the trailer hastily, Brian right behind her.

"Hey Blondie, in here." Roman whispered, pointing to a small crawl space under the bed.

"I can't fit in there, are you nuts?" She asked, her eyes big as she stared back at Roman.

"Just do it. Come on. I'll get you out in a bit, I promise." Roman nodded, pushing her in there. He made sure no spilled blood had been on the floor before shutting the door.  
"Up there, the bed Shayde." Brian pointed to the overhead bed of the truck that pulled the trailer. She quickly jumped up there, climbing under the covers. Brian joined her.

"You still a cop?" She asked furiously, whispering as loudly as she could without being loud enough to hear outside the trailer.

"No, I'll explain it all later. I promise." Brian crawled over her to get closer to the wall. Roman jumped up there and hid under the covers as well, putting Shayde in the middle.

"Well, well, well. Look at the three of us. All cozy up in here." He joked in a whisper.

"Not now Roman." Brian shook his head, praying he would shut the hell up.

"I love me a sandwich, girl. You interested in a three way sandwich?" he asked, grinning and joking. She rolled her eyes.

"Go to hell." She spat. They were all silenced by the roaring of engines and then the silence of them as they were turned off.

"We got company." Tej noted, looking out the window, putting his hand on his gun to make sure he was ready for anything that was about to happen. He sat back down and pretended to be playing solitaire. There was a knock on the door. Shayde felt herself take a deep breath and hold it. Brian felt her shakiness and put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. She quickly shrugged it off.

"Can I help you?" Tej asked, opening the door as though he had nothing to hide.

"Yeah, maybe." A guy stared back at him, clearly trying to look inside. "Have you seen two girls, a blonde and black haired girl?" He asked.

"Nah, not that I know of. Are they cute?" He asked, giving a grin.

"Ha-ha. Well, one of them happens to be my cousin and I need to tell her something. It's an emergency. Have you seen two girls in that trailer?" The guy asked, nodding to two girls' trailer.

"Nah, the two I think you are talkin 'bout left like an hour or so ago. I don't know, they didn't race, so I didn't really pay attention to 'em. "Tej shrugged, looking apologetic.

"Okay, well, thanks for your time." the guy nodded, getting back in his car.

"No problem." Tej shut the door and closed his eyes, glad it didn't come to a shootout. He looked out the curtain and watched them drive off. He gave a loud sigh. "It's all clear." He said, shaking his head. "Someone wanna fill me in on what the hell is goin on?" He asked, helping Kaidyn out of the small storage space. She looked a bit disgruntled as Roman jumped down, still not over him pushing her in there to begin with.

"What?"He asked, obviously feeling a bit defensive about it.

"So, you a cop?" Shayde asked, her eyes narrowed at Brian.

"Him, a cop?" Roman asked, pointing to Brian and laughing a bit. "Ha, ha-ha, ha." He shook his head at the irony.

"Yes, him. He's got information he wouldn't have unless he checked up on me somehow." Shayde growled, hating to be a bitch but feeling like her back was up against a wall.

"Blondie's got some connections. That's how his punk ass found me." Roman nodded, holding a bag of cheetos and eating them as he talked.

"Rome, who's side you on, man?" Brian asked, throwing up his hands.

"Look, do I wanna know why those guys packing two guns a piece were here? Or how it is that you both are lookin like scared rabbits?" Tej asked, once again trying to get answers.

"Talk to your boy. He seems to have the answers." Shayde said, playing with Kaidyn's hair. She was silent, sitting in the bench style seat with her knees drawn to her chin and her arms around them. She looked so lost in thought that she wasn't even listening to them. "You okay, sis?" She asked, getting a small nod from Kaidyn. Shayde took out her Ipod and gave it to her. "Can we please talk about this in a calm matter before my sister has a panic attack?" Shayde whispered to Tej, who stopped to stare at Kaidyn and nodded.

"Yeah, for sure. I'm sorry. I didn't even notice. Sorry, my bad." Tej apologized sincerely. They moved to the back of the trailer, it was definitely bigger than Shayde and Kaidyn's trailer, Shayde noted. Of course, with as many people Dominic had in his crew, that was understandable.

"Why'd you check up on me? What business is it of yours, Brian?" Shayde, no longer able to contain her anger, looked at Brian with pure anger.

"I had a friend who owed me a favor and you sure as hell wouldn't talk to me. Dom wouldn't tell me nothing. I had to know if it was me getting shot at or if it was you and I think in this case, it's the both of us." Brian looked her into her pretty light but dark eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Shayde asked, peering down the sort of hallway to make sure Kaidyn was still chilling out. Roman was up there with her looking through the fridge.

"I mean, I'm on Verone's hit list too. But I didn't expect to hear that you and her are his sisters." Brian said, running a hand through his head.

"I'm his sister, she's only his half sister." Shayde confessed her body tense from having said it out loud. "Why would you be on his hit list?" She asked, still not sure as to why he would say that.

"Cause me and Romey Rome up there are the ones who put him away." Brian leaned on the table and folded his arms.

"Greatttt. Out of the million and one guys in the world I could meet, I meet the ones who put my brother away so it makes him even more determined to catch us all." Shayde shook her head, then held her head with her hand like she had a headache.

"Lucky you, lucky, lucky you." Brian shot back sarcastically. "So can you tell me why Carter Verone would be after his own flesh and blood?" Brian asked, hearing more engines roar up.

"I'd prefer not to but since you're not going to stop pushin, I figure I'll get it out of the way now." Shayde said, not happy and really not happy with Brian's triumphant smile at her admittance.

"Wow, Man, she knows you already." Tej shook his head with a laugh, getting a small punch from Brian, the ones that friends give to each other when they tease each other.

"It's pretty simple. Verone and I are full blooded brother and sister, our dad cheated on our mom with Kaidyn's mom. Verone never forgave him for what he did and my dad ended up disowning him for being an ass about it." Shayde sighed, not really happy to have to recount this story to anyone, especially not Brian O' Connor.

"So, he's like almost 40 and still not over Daddy gettin with someone else?" Tej asked, himself confused.

"Nah, it's not about that. See, my dad is rich. It'd blow your mind to know how much money he has. But when our Dad left and him and his wife had Kaidyn, he cut Carter out of the will. Carter couldn't deal with the thought of not having all that money. He was raised with the kind of lifestyle that he loved, and nothing is going to keep him from having it now. One day, his temper got the best of him."Shayde took a deep breath, again checking to see where Kaidyn was and what she was doing. Her and Roman were playing the playstation 3, racing each other intensely.

"Yeah, his temper sucks." Brian agreed, checking out the window he was closest to check for anyone that could be watching or waiting outside.

"If I tell you this next part, you betta not mention this around Kaidyn, k?" Shayde asked, looking them in the eyes.

"Promise." They both said in unison.

"He killed her mom right in front of her, when she was 11. She doesn't remember it but we were both there and he shot her point blank in the head." Shayde looked down, trying to block out the images in her head of the flashbacks. "She has blocked out so much but she knows someone is after us." Shayde sighed sadly.

"Well, no worries, we'll keep you safe."Brian said, immediately regretting saying that once he said it.

"I don't need you to keep me safe, thank you very much, Mr. Macho Man. And for your information, you staying around us would be plain and utterly stupid. You're just freaking icing on the cake if Verone finds us. You have a death wish?" Shayde asked, provoking some thought out of Brian.

A/N: Please read and review! Thanks as always!


	9. Chapter 9

Blacktop obsession chapter 9

"Icing or not, I want to help put him away for good." Brian said, looking at Shayde.

"This is not your fight, Blondie." Shayde retorted almost hatefully.

"How can you say that? He almost killed me and Rome. It _is _our fight just as much as it is yours." Brian's chin was held up defiantly.

"Yeah, sure it is. I mean, being kin to him is not a big deal, right?" Shayde asked, folding her arms and being stubborn.

"You know what I mean." Brian rolled his eyes. "Fine, go out there and see how long you last. Why can't we work together if we're both working for the same goal?" Brian's eyes flashed angrily. He stomped down the small hallway and sat by Roman, his arms folded as though he was pouting.

"He's got issues." Shayde sighed, shaking her head.

"Nah, I think he's thinkin safety in numbers." Tej gave Shayde a nod.

"I don't need safety. I've been taking care of her for a long time by myself and I can handle it." Shayde replied defensively, watching Brian watch the other two play their game.

"I didn't say it was for you." Tej said, grinning. Shayde couldn't help but grin herself. "Maybe you should just humor him and hang out with our crew for a while." Tej shrugged. "Hell, he won't come out and ask you to help him, that's not how Brian rolls." Tej said. He knew he was dissing on his boy but if making Shayde think Brian was the one who needed help to get her to stay and be safe, then so be it.

"Well, I guess I can hideout for a few more days." Shayde sighed, knowing full well that Brian was on to her. They didn't have anywhere else to go, Carter was too hot on their tail for them to be safe right now.

"Atta girl." Tej smiled. "Let's go see if Roman is getting his butt beat by a girl, shall we?" He asked, noticing Brian staring at him. He gave him a coy nod and Brian smiled. The good cop, bad cop plan had worked yet again. They had broken Shayde down and had gotten her to stay.

"Can I play?" Brian asked Kaidyn.

"You can take Rome's since I just beat him." Kaidyn laughed, loving Roman's look of hurt pride.

"You only won that one cause I hit that tree." Roman pouted.

"Well, quit huggin trees and you won't have that problem." Kaidyn retorted.

"So are they still around?" Shayde tried to look outside, keeping her voice low.

"Don't know, why?" Tej asked.

"I have our stuff over there I need to get. I just mainly need her adderall for her adhd because otherwise, it's going to get pretty crazy with her." Shayde warned Tej.

"Trust me, no one can compare to Roman." Tej shook his head.

"All right, we'll see about that." Shayde sat down, texting Dominic. She had her doubts about Kaidyn behaving but she'd let him find out on her own.

"Shh, you guys be quiet." Brian said when they heard some footsteps getting close to the trailer. He put his hand on his gun and looked at Tej with a worried glance. Tej's eyes were on the door as well. Roman reached over and turned down the TV and grinning at Kaidyn's annoyed glance at all of them for Brian pausing their game.

"Holy shit." Dominic held up his hands once he opened the door, being greeted by Brian's gun barrel. "I know you're mad about the little incident when you were checking out Hector's shop and we caught you, but I wouldn't expect you to hold a grudge." Dominic grinned, shutting the door behind him.

"Funny." Brian laid the gun on the table. Kaidyn eyed it curiously, making Shayde hand it to Brian with an exasperated look.

"I thought police officers were supposed to know how to carry and store guns with responsibility." She rolled her eyes. Brian looked at her with confusion, not knowing what she was getting at.

"You know somehtin I don't?" Dominic raised a suspicious eyebrow at Shayde. "I'll kill him if he's playing undercover again." Dominic said in such a calm voice it made chill bumps on Brian's arm.

"No, not that I know of. My sources haven't gotten back to me yet on that one." Shayde said, still staring at Brian.

"Great, you too. I told you all I'm not a damn cop anymore." Brian looked at Dominic, knowing it was important for Dominic to trust him now that the crew really was all that he had. He had grown to think of them as family and the former undercover cop/trust issue was still a very sore subject with Dominic.

"Let's focus and get the hell outta here. Brian's well aware of what will happen if he pulls that shit again." Dominic sighed, turning to Shayde. "I got some boys that will grab your stuff out of the trailers for you once we are gone and bring it to me later, okay?" He asked, knowing that was a concern of hers at the moment. His face looked grim. "There are about three cars parked different places watching it so let's leave so they can get it when we are gone." He looked at Shayde, waiting for an answer. She had texted him earlier telling him she needed certain things but right now it was just too risky.

"We're ready to go." Kaidyn nodded, taking Brian's controller out of his hand and unpausing the game.

"You're always ready to go, kiddo." Dominic ruffled her hair. "All right, I have my cell if you need to talk to me." He said, getting his keys and getting ready to get into the truck that was pulling the trailer.

"You know where we're goin? Cause we can't go back to your house and cause you trouble." Shayde bit her lower lip, her mind on overdrive.

"Yeah, no worries. I got a place in mind. You guys just sit back and enjoy the ride." Dominic gave a wave to them as he headed out the door.

"Ha, I beat you too. Tej, want to try to beat me?" Kaidyn asked, looking quite victorious.

"Hey! That wasn't even fair! You unpaused it when I was trying to talk to them!" Brian objected, shocked she had grabbed his controller from him.

"Hey, you should have been paying attention. Gee, how old are you?" She asked, shaking her head.

"Old enough to know you don't do that when you are playing with a friend. I demand a rematch." Brian grinned, although serious about the rematch.

"Why, you'll just lose again. You can rematch all you want but I have this game on lock down." Kaidyn gloated, making Brian just stare at her in shock. He hadn't seen this side of her.

"See what I meant, Tej?" Shayde laughed, loving watching Brian's shock.

"Well, quit talkin and let's play then." Brian motioned towards the PS2. They soon became entranced in another game.

"Come on, Brian. Don't get beat by a girl." Roman stood behind his friend, munching on a beef jerky stick.

"Why, just cause you already did?" Brian asked, his shoulder turning with the direction the car was going. He was on her car's tail now and he was determined to beat her this time.

"Hey, I'm not the racer who has raced all over and thinks he's all that and a bag of chips." Roman shrugged, opening some cabinets. "Some chips sure would be good right about now." He rubbed his stomach.

"Do you eat anything or everything? Like, do you eat diet stuff too? I need to know your secret." Kaidyn said, her car finishing the race. She jumped up. "Booo-yah!" She yelled to Brian, doing a small victory dance.

"Damn, bro, pay up." Tej said, holding out his hands to collect the money he was owed. Brian dug in his pockets, then paid him.

"I wanted in on that, darn it." Roman grumbled. "Girl, I eat it all. Except yogurt, salad, tofu, seaweed, or any kind of fish." He said, making a face.

"So basically anything healthy you won't touch?" Shayde asked, intrigued.

"Yup, you could say that." He replied.

"Good to know. I'm goin on a junk food diet then. Forget counting calories." Kaidyn giggled, opening a coke.

"Like you counted them before." Shayde rolled her eyes, almost bitter. Her sister was just like Roman, she could eat anything she wanted anytime and didn't have to worry about keeping weight off. Not that Shayde did either, but girls who were in pageants were often mis-judged as being diet obsessed and obsessed with how they looked. That was a stigma she didn't want anyone to have of Kaidyn because it was so far from her and how she was.

"You mean, you don't dig junk food? Are you serious?" Roman asked, his eyes wide with shock, feeling her forehead.

"It's okay. I just don't care for sweets. I prefer to eat meat like steaks and hamburgers." Kaidyn said, getting up to hand Tej the controller.

"Yum, steaks and hamburgers." Roman closed his eyes, thinking of how good those would smell on the grill. This made all of them laugh. Brian stole a glance at Shayde, trying to do it without being noticed. He felt bad for her being so worried. He was worried himself, there was no denying that. But it was Kaidyn that he noticed that seemed really stressed out about the situation. If she didn't remember a whole lot, what was her reason for being so panicky, he wondered. He had so many questions and was dying to ask Shayde but knew that wasn't an option.

"You okay?" Roman asked Shayde, sitting down to make himself a sandwich.

"I don't think so. I feel kinda sick to my stomach." Shayde said, looking a bit ill.

"Yeah, this whole drama thing sucks but I bet sucks more for you." Roman nodded, smearing mayonnaise and ketchup on the wheat bread. Then he added two pieces of cheese, a slice of bologna, a few pieces of turkey meat, and then some maple honey ham.

"It's not the drama, Roman, it's your damn appetite." Shayde busted up laughing at his hurt look.

"Ok, ok." He nodded. "Maybe I do deserve that." He nodded, taking a bite and chewing. He looked at Shayde's thin frame and his eyes narrowed, a thought suddenly occurring to him. "You a police officer? You a federal agent? Cause I don't like federal agents at all." Roman shook his head with conviction.

"What you got against federal agents? You seem traumatized as hell." Shayde laughed.

"Because I _was_ traumatized. The agent who took Verone down... She sucked. She was like this 8 headed monster and had this big ol mole on her face and she was mean." Roman shivered, making Shayde look even more intrigued.

"Rome, are you still whining cause she liked me better than you, man?" Brian's eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Shoot, you can have all of her, Cuz. She almost got us killed." Roman frowned, getting up to pace.

"Whoa, hold up. Maybe you two had your differences, but how do you figure she almost got us killed?" Brian asked, this being the first time he had heard of this revelation by his best friend.

"Ok, Blondie, let me spell it out for you." Roman sat back down, pointing to the other side of the table for Brian to sit down in. Brian did, ready to hear this theory. "Ok, if she hadn't flirted with you." He started, getting a roll of the eyes and a shake of the head from Brian. "You know I'm right, don't even go there. And not because I like her cause I've seen jellyfish that are hotter than her." Roman held up a hand, knowing Brian was going to try to interrupt him.

"You're a hater, Roman Pearce, and that is all there is to it." Brian laughed, not convinced.

"Just shut up and listen, would ya?" Roman asked, annoyed he was being interrupted. Brian held up his hands innocently and nodded. "She flirted with you and set Verone off. Her little antics at the club got him all riled up and suspicious. Then she was too dumb to know that he would test her ass. So she escapes to tell you we're gonna get killed and I'm just taking a guess here, but I'm sure that didn't help with the suspicion Verone had. And then she tells us that the drop off is at Tarpin strip. And it wasn't. So he then knew it was all her. Then the next thing you know, she's got you playing hero and trying to drive our car off the dock into the boat." Roman's voice was louder now. Brian was trying to get him to stop by doing the cutthroat motion to his neck as if to say 'cut it out' but Roman was not having any of that.

"Ah, I see it now. I get it." Shayde said, nodding. She walked back into the back of the trailer, sitting on the bed.

"What? What do you get?" Brian asked, giving Roman a look as if to say 'I'll get you later'. If looks could have killed, Roman would be laying flat lined on the floor.

"That you like to play superhero. You are just trying to help me because you think I'm a damsel in distress." Shayde folded her arms, happy to have heard all of this before she made the mistake of putting her heart on the line. She wished she hadn't allowed herself to even like him the least little bit.

"No, you don't get it. You are way off, Shayde." Brian shook his head.

"Really? You sure about that?" Shayde asked, looking into his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm sure about that." Brian said, feeling like maybe she was starting to believe him.

"Well, I think you should stop being so sure of yourself because you obviously don't have a clue about yourself. See, this is how I think it is. You liked being a cop because you could be a hero but because you found some friends you could save and can't be a cop anymore, you have to play hero to any females you find that need help. Is that how it is, Brian?" Shayde asked, looking out the window, no longer able to look at him. It would be over her dead body before she would let him see the tears in her eyes.

"You are so obsessed with your own problems that you can't think straight. You have no right to assume any of that shit and you know it." Brian said, his chin held up and his eyes narrowed. "One time I tried to help someone. Excuse me for not liking the fact that someone could die and I could do something to 

help keep that from happening. Some people have a conscious and don't like to walk away." He yelled, then realized his voice was way louder than it should have been.

"One time? Ha, ha, ha-ha, hahahahah." Shayde laughed.

"Look at me when you talk to me." Brian put a hand on her shoulder and spun her to face him. She tried to resist but he wasn't having it.

"One time? You are so full of shit that I think you are fooling your own self. Maybe you are like my sister, maybe you have had something traumatic happen and you've blocked out certain things in your mind because you can't deal with them and if not, you are lying to yourself." She shook her head angrily, her voice almost sounding like it was going to crack.

"What the hell are you talking about? Maybe if you would stop slinging insults and explain, then maybe…" He was interrupted.

"Then maybe you can find another story or excuse to explain it? Well, here you go, Brian O'Conner. I'll give you a brief list of them. You helped out the team because you fell for Mia. You also helped out this federal agent. You also have a history of helping out girls that you like." Shayde said, holding up her phone. "Yeah, I have friends too." She said, making Brian's mouth drop open.

"Well, when you're undercover, you have to get close to the people you are helping. It wasn't like I handpicked the cases and you are so wrong . You know it, too. You just are too damn stubborn to admit it." Brian threw up his hands in anger. Shayde started to get up, but Brian put a hand on her to stop her. Before he could say another word, Kaidyn came charging at him, full force and running. She jumped on him.

"Kaidyn, what the hell?!" Shayde asked, confused and startled.

"I thought we were playing tag?" She replied as she looked down. Once Shayde saw her look down and that she was lying, it dawned on her that she thought Brian was hurting her. Brian and Shayde exchanged glances and it was almost as if the thought had occurred to the both of them at the same time. It was funny how they could almost read each other without having to speak at all.

A/N: Hey guys! I want to say thank you so much for reading and reviewing this story. All the support and feedback is so greatly appreciated! I Please be kind and leave a review!! It would make me sooo happy!! Cheer


	10. Chapter 10

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 10

"Man, I wouldn't trust the girl, _Brian._" Roman said after they had pulled into a McDonalds. Brian and Roman were in the line, Roman dancing around and anxiously awaiting to place his order.

"Wow, that's not shocking, Bro." Brian grinned, watching Kaidyn and Shayde talk across the way. "She's fine. She's not a cop." He shook his head, now looking at Roman.

"No, but you're gonna get burned by her. I see the way you look at her, you're almost under a spell or some shit when you're around her." Roman grumbled, sounding almost jealous.

"Ro, I'm a big boy, k? I can handle myself." Brian said and walked over to Tej with Roman mocking his words behind him.

"Are you sure no one followed us?" Kaidyn asked Shayde, giving a weary sigh as they walked into the girls bathroom. Kaidyn did some stretches, grateful to be out of the tight space of the trailer.

"I'm sure. We'll wait till I get the call and we'll be outta here in no time." Shayde smiled confidently. She slapped Kaidyn's hand as she chewed on one of her nails. That was one of her biggest bad habits.

"I hope you're right." She sighed again, giving her sister an annoyed look for the slap.

"Hello." Shayde answered her phone, putting a finger to her lips to hush Kaidyn up.

"Hey, it's the black Maxima in front of the door in the drive through line. It has tinted windows. One of the other boys are up there ordering and not going to finish ordering till my boy calls him, so get goin." Dominic said, standing outside the McDonald's to make sure the coast was clear. "It's right at the door you walked in at." He added.

"Did we get followed?" Shayde asked, shooing Kaidyn out the door as she talked.

"Nope, we lost them earlier. Trust me, they'll be lost trying to keep up with us all." Dominic smiled, quite proud of himself at coming up with this plan. "I'll call you later, girl." He hung up.

"All right, follow me, girly. Let's hit the road again." Shayde lead the way. "Just hurry up and get in behind me and we'll be good to go." She nodded, holding Kaidyn's hand. She noticed it was shaking."Hey, you okay?" She asked, stopping before they got out the door, stopping to lift up her chin.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kaidyn said, her heart feeling like it was lodged in her throat.

"Kk, I promise you that no one will hurt you. I will not let that happen. Just follow what I do and it'll be fine." She said in a reassuring tone.

"This is like some Sherlock Holmes stuff, huh?" Kaidyn giggled nervously as they walked out.

"You're nutty." Shayde said, holding her breath as though it would help her get outside safely. She hopped into the black Maxima car and made sure Kaidyn climbed in right behind her. Both girls scrambled to shut the door quickly.

"Hey girls, this line's a bit too long, you're not hungry are you?" Hector asked with a grin, looking at them through the rearview mirror.

"Nah, we're not hungry at all." Shayde gave a knowing smile. Kaidyn looked out the window, seeing Dominic leaning on the front of the truck's hood, keeping watch like a guard that was guarding the Queen of England's castle.

"Good, we're outa here." He pulled away. "No hi Hector, How ya doin Hector, no you're my favoritest person in the world Hector?" Hector asked Kaidyn with a mischievous grin.

"Hi Hector, how are you Hector?" She asked, distracted by looking out the back window, making sure no one was following them. This made Shayde and Hector laugh at her. She looked at them quizzically, not getting what was so funny. Hector pulled out of the drive through line, checking his mirrors to make sure no one was following them.

"Dom came up with the most genius of plans, don't you think?" He asked Shayde, who yawned and nodded. "Us splittin up like this, there's no way they can follow us all." He laughed.

"How long until we get there?" A sleepy Shayde asked, watching Kaidyn look around his car for something to do.

"About an hour." Hector replied.

"Ohhh, that's an awesome Ipod! Can I be the DJ?" Kaidyn asked, her big blue eyes lighting up at Hector's lightning case on his Ipod that had just caught her attention.

"Sure, here …" Hector started to unhook it and hand it to her. Kaidyn had already started climbing up front, glad to have something to do.

"You can't Dj from the back." She said matter of factly, sitting in the seat and adjusting to the bucket seat. Shayde covered her face with her hand in disbelief and a bit of embarrassment.

"I'll agree with you on that one." Hector nodded, giving Shayde a look as if to say 'she's fine'.

"So, what was this master plan? Shayde was supposed to tell me but she didn't cause now she's asleep and so you can tell me." Kaidyn crossed one leg over the other, still playing with his Ipod as she talked.

"Me and my crew all picked you guys up at MickyD's at different times in that drive through line. We're all takin different routes and going to get to the place we're heading at different times. Pretty good plan, don't you think?" He asked, looking at Kaidyn. He was glad Shayde was getting some sleep, it was well needed.

"Why do you act as though I should know you?" Kaidyn asked, her eyes narrowed suspiciously, as though she was sizing him up. "I've only seen you around a few times." She added, waiting for an answer impatiently.

"Are you playin me? You seriously don't remember me? I'm hurt." Hector looked a bit offended.

"Yeah, right. Sounds like you're playin me." She changed the song on the stereo and blew her hair out of her face.

"Let me put it this way, have you added any new trophies to that room of yours?" Hector asked, getting a big reaction from her.

"Are you a stalker?" She asked, her mouth dropped open at how he knew that.

"Would a stalker pick up your meds and stuff from the pharmacy for you? I'm at your house like all the time." Hector said, trying to convince her.

"My sister wouldn't let anyone do that for her. She's quite capable of doing it herself." Kaidyn shook her head, folding her arms now as she watched him for his reaction.

"Do you seriously not remember me picking you from school and taking you to your pageants, your cheer practices, and to other things like that? I was like your personal chauffer for a while." Hector laughed.

"I would remember if I had a personal chauffer, thank you very much. You're still suspicious to me." She said, still not convinced. Hector wanted to crack her up. She was a riot.

"If you don't trust me, wake your sister up and ask her." He motioned to Shayde, who was peacefully asleep in the back.

"Umm, no, I think I'll pass. I guess if she's sleepin with you driving, you must be somewhat okay." Kaidyn sighed, really not wanting to wake Shayde up.

"Gee, thanks." He retorted.

"So, you got any magazines that a girl can read or anything at all to look at?" She asked, fidgeting in the seat. She reminded him a lot of Jesse at how she was so hyper and talkative.

"Me? Ha, I'm a macho boy, not a pretty boy. It wouldn't be right for a hard core racer to have mags for chicks in this car." Hector shook his head. It was silent for a bit, much to Hector's relief.

"So, now I know why she won't give into Brian and like him, she's with you!" Kaidyn clapped her hands together as if a light bulb in her head had came on. This made Hector about spit out his drink he had just taken a drink of. He couldn't help but bust out into laughter.

"Hector, quit laughing and go back to sleep." Shayde murmured in the back seat, curling up even more. Kaidyn's mouth dropped open and she put a hand over it to hide her shock.

"It's not even like that so get that outta that head of yours." Hector shook his head, trying to make sure Kaidyn didn't get the wrong idea. "Oh, look, here we are." He declared, sounding relieved. They pulled into the underground garage of Dominic's. This was the same place he had stored his cars when he had been doing the heists on the regular. It was nicely hidden and large enough to fit ten freight trucks inside of it along with some other amenities.

"Wake up, we're here!" Kaidyn punched her sister excitedly, like a kid at the circus. She jumped out to go explore. Hector opened Shayde's door for her.

"Where in the hell does she get the energy from, Shayde?" He asked, shaking his head, watching Kaidyn.

"I have no clue." Shayde stretched after getting out. She gave a big yawn.

"You know she doesn't really remember me?" Hector asked, looking concerned. He knew it had been a while since he had seen Kaidyn, but it hadn't been _that _long.

"Yeah, it doesn't shock me since she's blocked out so much." Shayde sighed, sounding extremely exhausted.

"But surely she wouldn't forget me. I mean, I have been there a lot." He said, looking into Shayde's tired eyes.

"But she's always gone when you are at my house. Between community service, then he going away to serve that bit of time in juvie, and then all the pageants and traveling she did, you know. I'm sure it'll come back to her sometime soon." Shayde said, secretly hoping it wouldn't for a while. If it did, there would be even bigger problems at hand.

"I'm shocked she didn't sleep on the way here." Hector said, sitting on the hood of his car as Kaidyn walked around restlessly.

"She hardly sleeps at all, Hector. Post traumatic stress does that for you." Shayde folded her arms.

"Isn't there anything to do here?" Kaidyn walked over looking as bored as she sounded.

"Just sit tight, Rome and Tej will be here in about fifteen minutes or so." Hector nodded.

"All right, I'm timing you." She nodded, checking her sister's watch. Shayde just let her sister grab her arm, used to her doing things like that.

"I said about." Hector laughed.

"Hey sis, there's a fridge that's built into the walls in here somewhere. If you find it, I bet Dom has some Coronas in there. Bet you can't find it." Shayde challenged.

"Ha, I know I can find it." Kaidyn smiled smugly, literally hopping away to go start her mission.

"That should keep her busy….all of five minutes or so." Shayde nodded, knowing it wasn't that hard to find it. "Hope you can come up with something to keep her occupied until then, Hector." Shayde laughed, loving the look Hector gave her.

A/n: Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading as always! Please review! Cheer


	11. Chapter 11

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 11

"Oh my gosh, I am glad to see you guys!" Kaidyn exclaimed when Tej and Roman rolled in the garage. She had been about ready to climb the walls.

"Wow, I love welcomes like these." Tej grinned, giving Kaidyn a welcomed squeeze back from the hug she had just given him. He kept his arm around her shoulder. Roman looked at Tej as if to say 'that's not fair'. "She's mine, fool." Tej grinned. "Backup." His smile dropped, making Kaidyn laugh at his playfulness.

"You guys make it all right? Any trouble?" Shayde walked over to their car.

"Nope, no problems at all." Tej shook his head. "We brought some extra food if anyone's hungry." He offered, holding up a sack.

"That's my food, yo." Roman snatched it out of his hands.

"Nah, your food was in the back seat but help yo self if you want to eat what's in there." Tej shrugged. He leaned down to whisper in Kaidyn's ear. "Its stuff he won't eat." He grinned as he told her his secret. Sure enough, Roman put down the sack with a disgusted face.

"Yuck." He shook his head.

"What's in there?" Kaidyn looked at Tej questioningly.

"Salad on top. I knew he wouldn't look past that so it's just hamburgers and stuff under there. I know him so well." Tej laughed.

"She sure is close to ol' boy." Hector grimaced, protectively.

"He's fine, Hector. One of Brian's boys from Miami." Shayde put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from going any closer over there. She hadn't realized they hadn't met yet.

"Even if he is, you sure you're okay lettin him hit on her like that?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yes, it's not hitting on her. She's like that, you know that. She's got that magnetic flirty personality, it's not his fault." Shayde said. Hector felt something hit his head. He whirled around, looking at the three over there. Kaidyn was checking out one of her nails.

"Tej, Rome, come over here and meet Hector." Shayde yelled, giving a questioning look at Hector and what he was tripping on. He felt it again and turned around. Kaidyn waited until he turned his back on her and she flipped a paperclip at him again. She had found a few more and was getting ready to hit him again when Shayde shook her head at her. She smiled at her sister innocently. "This is Tej and Roman, Rome, Tej, this is Hector. He's a good friend of mine and Dom's." Shayde introduced, trying to not laugh. 

Her sister knew how to make her laugh and she didn't even try to be comedic. Kaidyn did it again and Hector turned around, pointing at her.

"I know it's you! I knew it!" Hector pointed at her, charging at her. He then chased her around the room. Kaidyn shrieked as she ran. He picked her up and held her upside down, holding onto her by her little feet. "You gonna stop buggin me, little girl?" He asked, tickling her.

"I didn't do it!" Kaidyn yelled, laughing and maintaining her innocence. He continued to tickle her.

"You gonna confess yet?" He asked, throwing off her studded flip flops and tickling her feet and making her howl as he held her easily with one hand and the other arm. "You are so lucky my phone is ringing, miss thang." He said, putting her down gently so he could answer his phone. Kaidyn scampered away, her face being red from being hung upside down.

"Everything cool?" Tej asked Hector, worried that could have been some trouble.

"Yeah, Brian and Dom will be here next. They haven't had anyone follow them that they know of." Hector nodded.

"What are you doing now, young lady?" Roman sneaked up behind Kaidyn who had found a dry erase board. She jumped then laughed.

"Just drawing. This is a drawing on an alien, whaddya think?" She asked, holding the marker in her hand.

"That's a very um, creative way to draw an alien." Roman nodded, trying to humor her. She couldn't draw worth a damn.

"Ok, ok, I get it, you don't like that one. Here, I'll draw you my car's next design." She bent down to grab the eraser and started to erase the whole board that had some scribbling on one side on top of what could be taken for a map.  
"Yeah, you draw a car design, I wanna see this shit." Roman nodded, sitting down on the floor to wait patiently to let her draw.

"I hope Dom didn't need that map and those plans he had up on that wall." Hector looked down and shook his head as he walked over to Tej and Shayde.

"Well, it's on her if he did. I'm not in it." Shayde shook her head, holding up her hands innocently. Hector's phone rang again and he walked away to answer it.

"I got you, Holmes." He walked towards the garage door opener and opened it. He kept an eye out while Dominic and Brian pulled in.

"Hey, glad you made it." Shayde walked over to Dominic and hugged him.

"You and me both. I got someone getting your cars and trailer too. Should be here way later tonight." Dominic nodded gruffly. "What the hell happened to my plans on that board?" He asked, walking over. 

All the guys watched him walk over to Kaidyn, who was deeply engrossed in her drawing now. He tapped her on the shoulder.

"Oh, hey Dom." She flashed him her top pageant smile, not knowing anything was wrong.

"Hey, were you the one who erased my stuff up there?" He asked, his voice low as he nodded to the dry erase board.

"Yup, that was me." She nodded, still not realizing he was upset about it.

"Interesting. Did you see that writing I had on it?" He asked, folding his arms. She nodded. "Did you think it was up there for a reason?" He asked, making her now realize what his deal was. She covered her mouth with a hand.

"I'm so sorry, Dom!" She shook her head. She gave him her best innocent eyes she could come up with. "I wasn't sure if it was old stuff up there, since this place seemed so unused and dusty. I would never have done it if I had known, I was just bored." She rambled into one long sentence, acting mad at herself.

"She's good." Tej remarked from across the room where the Tej, Shayde, Brian and Hector were watching.

"Oh, yeah she is." Hector grinned, knowing she could work almost any guy if she wanted to.

"It's okay. I'll forgive you this time." Dominic said, hugging her.

"I feel so bad." Kaidyn looked down. Dominic lifted her chin up and looked her in the eyes.

"It's okay, don't beat yourself up. I heard you do enough of that. Nice drawing." Dominic complimented her, getting her off of the subject, not wanting to be too hard on her.

"Thanks. Want to play a game with me?" She asked, erasing what she had gotten drawn so far.

"No thanks. I'm goin to let Roman play one with you. I need to go talk to your sister. Okay?" He asked. She nodded and looked at Roman.

"Want me to teach you the way Miss America waves?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Nah, that's not a guy thing to do, ya know?" Roman shook his head. She looked disappointed.

"But Dom said you'd play a game with me." She pouted, now bored again. "Besides, no one is paying attention to us." She tried to persuade him.

"Watch this. This is going to be funny." Shayde nudged Tej, glancing at Roman and Kaidyn. "She's teaching him the wave." She snickered, loving the fact that a big tough, built guy like Roman had caved to her.

"Man, that's too funny." Brian laughed. "I can't believe she's getting Romey Rome to do the wave and the walk." He shook his head, truly amused at the sight of Roman prancing down an imaginary runway and doing the wave.

"She teaches all her friends that are boys that." Shayde laughed. "No one has been able to tell her no as of yet." Shayde shrugged.

"You won't catch me doin that." Hector laughed, getting a knowing look from Shayde. She raised an eyebrow at him as if to remind him she knew about his strut. This made Hector move right beside her.

"Tell them and I will strip your car and your sisters down to parts and hock 'em on the black market."He leaned over and whispered in her ear. She slapped him and shook her head. Dominic cleared his voice.

"So, Shay, can I talk to you in my office?" Dominic asked, the crew 'ohhing' like a bunch of elementary kids.

"Sure."She said, rolling her eyes and holding up her hand to them and their noises.

"So, what is your plan now?" Dominic asked, leaning on his desk.

"I'll take her and head out of state, I suppose." Shayde said, shrugging. Quite honestly, she didn't have a plan. She was out of plans. She thought her current plan would have kept her own brother at bay and off of her trail, but she reckoned that was what she got for thinking.

"Why don't you stay at my house for a while?" Dominic asked, knowing he was in for a fight with her. She didn't take help well.

"No, no, no. You sound like Brian out there." She paced, shaking her head.

"Look, my house is off his radar, if you guys stay inside and keep on the dl, he'll give up and look elsewhere." Dominic sighed, folding his arms.

"Yeah, right. And suppose he finds your house? You really want your crew in the middle of some crazed killer willing to do anything to get to his target?" Shayde asked, looking Dominic in the eyes.

"You know me and my boys can handle bullshit like that. I think its cause Brian already suggested that to you and you don't want to give him the satisfaction that he's right."Dominic argued, getting a go to hell look from her.

"Don't even go there about acting like a stubborn…you know what, let's just not go there." Shayde stopped herself from mentioning the fact that had Dominic not been so stubborn, Letty might still be around. She had already been through that with him in the past and today wasn't about that. She sighed.

"Look, all I'm sayin is you know he's right and whether or not that is killin you, I don't know. But you and I both know you can't risk making a wrong move right now." Dominic softened up his tone, hating to sound so much like a know it all or a conceited jackass as she was about to have called him.

"Yeah, maybe you are right. That's what's killin me. If it was just me, I'd go out on my own but it's not." Shayde sighed, sounding sad.

"So, you'll stay with us? I recently added onto the house and I have a safe room and as long as you guys don't leave the house, you'll be safe." Dominic sounded very pleased at her giving in so easily. He stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders, feeling just how tense she was.

"How in the world are we going to keep Kaidyn locked up in a house? She's going to go nuts on us." Shayde sighed.

"Well, keeping her alive and bored is better than the alternative, right?" Dominic asked, watching Kaidyn out of his office window. Shayde was right, she was going to be more than a handful to keep locked up in a house.

"Yeah, I guess." Was all Shayde replied, knowing this was going to be a longer than it seemed because that's how Kaidyn made it when it was something she hated. "I hope we can keep her occupied, Dom."She said with concern in her voice.

"We will. We got tons of games, the internet, plenty of people for her to harass in the house, and all that stuff she likes." Dominic said reassuringly, hoping to convince himself as well as he spoke. Kaidyn was a bit like a tornado. She was intense when she was interested in something and then could give it up as quickly as a tornado could dissipate back into the clouds, just there enough to leave its mark.

"All right, but we're only staying for a little while. When I say it's time to go, it's time to go, no arguing. Got it?" Shayde asked, finally making Dominic feel a little bit better.

"You got it." He held up his hands in agreement. Shayde started to head out the door. "One more thing, Shay." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her from opening the door. She looked at him quizzically. "You might not like O'Connor, but please tell me you aren't hookin it up with Hector." He said, hoping she didn't flip out on him for him getting in her business. Shayde bust into laughter.

"Are you serious? After all these years, you still would think me and Hector would hook up?" She asked, her mouth dropped open in shock.

"I'm beginning to wonder." He shrugged.

"No, you know it's not even like that, Dominic Toretto. You know I'm not even trying to have a relationship right now." She smacked him in the chest.

"Well, I know but damn, you two are making even me doubt myself and what I know." Dominic gave a grin.

"Well, keep on doubting cause that won't happen like that. Me and Hector would never be boyfriend/girlfriend." She said, shaking her head. Neither one of them were into relationships.

A/N: I know it's a short one but it'll be worth it, I promise. You know the drill, please read and review! Thanks Cheer!


	12. Chapter 12

Blacktop obsession chapter 12

"Man, I hope Dom isn't yelling at her about too much." Brian said, sitting on the hood of Hector's Maxima, taking a drink of his caffeinated beverage.

"Man, Brian, you hope it's not the other way around. She can handle Dom better than Dom can handle Dom." Hector laughed, making Brian laugh.

"That's funny."Brian laughed, feeling uncomfortable at Hector staring at him.

"You like her, don't ya Essay?" He asked, his eyes narrowing to focus on Brian. Brian turned a few shades of red.

"No." Brian lied, knowing he wasn't believable.

"Yeah, man, you do. Just own up to it." Hector grabbed Brian around the neck and playfully pretended to punch him. "Come on, if you don't tell me the truth, I can't help you hook it up wit my homegirl." Hector let him go and pretended not to care anymore.

"Yeah, I heard you been friends a long time. Ok, so what if I do?" He asked, turning serious.

"Then maybe I can hook a brotha up with some need to know info." He whispered, making Brian laugh at how funny and secretive he was acting.

"All right, let me have it." Brian said.

"Oh, I don't know if you can handle it, young son." Hector drew his hands to him as though he was praying and now had his legs folded, looking like a monk meditating and using an accent.

"You're wastin time, Hector." Brian whispered, hearing the door open and Dominic come out. There was still a good distance between Hector and Brian but he didn't want to chance anyone overhearing them.

"Fine, you're no fun." Hector laughed, then turned serious. "You'll never get to her unless you get her sister to like you for starters." Hector said, watching Kaidyn draw some more on the dry erase board, jamming with his Ipod she had forgotten to ask to borrow.

"She can't be all that hard to get past." Brian shrugged, making Hector burst into big laughter.

"You have no idea. She's nice to everyone she meets but Shay won't go out with someone unless her sister likes them. And Kaidyn is VERY protective of her sister, she can sabotage your standing in oh, let's say less than the time you can win a race." Hector warned.

"She really that bad? She can't be that bad." Brian frowned, just not picturing the picture of the blonde that Hector was painting.

"Really? I should know. I've known the two of them longer than Dom has and I've seen many try to get past her barrier. They have bought Kaidyn diamond rings, jewelry, pets, you name it to get on her good side." Hector shook his head. "She's a piece of work. You haven't seen nothin. YET." He warned.

"Damn. Sounds pretty challenging." Brian's eyes twinkled with mischief. He was deep in thought. "I don't think she's that bad." Brian said, still not buying the description of Kaidyn.

"Hey Brian, can you two come over here?" Dominic asked, motioning for them to come closer. "You too Blondie." He said.  
"One second, I gotta finish this." Kaidyn called back, chewing on her lip as she finished her drawing. The board was covered with a complex looking Komodo dragon, scales and all. There had to have been at least 100 scales and there wasn't any more room on the board to make another mark, Brian noted, wondering why she wasn't coming over.

"Detailed is she?" Tej looked at Shayde who nodded in agreement. When she focused, she could really, really focus. Kaidyn signed her name to the board in a flowery type of writing and drew a heart over her 'I' to dot it while Dominic sighed.

"See what I mean? Even Dom knows how she is. He wouldn't wait on any of us like that." Hector leaned over and whispered to Brian, who had also noticed that Dominic was being very patient. He nodded.

"Okay, Missy, can I get started now or are you going to go back over there and color it too?" Dominic asked as Kaidyn came to sit down on the floor in front of the group.

"Nope, you can start. I've got it colored how I wanted it." She answered with a shrug.

"Thank you." Dominic said dryly, not expecting her to reply.

"You're very welcome." She nodded sincerely, her big eyes on him. Shayde couldn't help but laugh at Dominic, who had taken a deep breath. She gave him a look and wondered if he was still really up to the challenge of taking her sister on.

"All right, guys. So the girls are going to stay at our …." Dominic stopped, distracted by Kaidyn jamming and dancing to a song on Hector's Ipod. She was lost in the music, not caring if they saw her moving to the music. He took another breath. He reached down and took the music out of her ear. She gave him a grimace and then sat there. "Corona or Ipod, you pick." He held them both up. She picked the corona, as he had figured she would. "You ready to listen now?" He asked. She nodded, working on opening it. Hector reached over to open it for her.

"You know what would be really good with this?" She burst out just as Dominic had opened his mouth to talk. This was too much for most of the crew and they bust up laughing.

"Let me guess. Some lime." Dominic said flatly, about ready to send her on a mission in the office. In fact, he thought, that sounded like a good idea. "Hey Kaidyn, can you do me a big favor?" He asked, getting her attention easily.

"Sure, what's up?" She asked, getting up off the floor.

"Can you go in my office and find me one key on a small paperclip? I think it's in my desk." Dominic asked, smiling at her.

"Sure, no problem." She took off, happy to help.

"Okay, good. Now, as I was about to say, we're going to keep the girls at my house, and to get there, we're going to have to…" Dominic was interrupted yet again.

"Here ya go." She threw the key to him, about to sit back down again.

"Oh, darn, that wasn't what I needed, I'm sorry, babe. I don't know why I have keys on my brain. What I meant to ask you to grab was …this piece of paper that has a phone number and address on it. It has gold edging on it and blue silvery writing on it. It's somewhere in my file cabinet in the folder of invoices." He said, giving her just enough description to keep her looking for something.

"Okay." She trotted off again, Dominic confident that this chore would take her a bit longer.

"Okay, now that we got that settled again, we need to split up again in different pairs just in case someone did follow us. And again, we need to head different routes. I want the girls brought in the back door and only once it's dark. Once we're all gone from here, they'll move the cars in." Dominic said, wearily watching the door for Kaidyn to come out at any moment.

"I'll ride with Kaidyn." Brian piped up, volunteering. Hector looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"No offence, blue eyes, but you can't handle my sister. There's no way." Shayde shook her head.

"I can handle her." Brian said confidently.

"Brian, think about this. You're hanging your own self." Hector said under his voice. He knew why Brian was doing it but Hector knew it wasn't going to turn out in his favor.

"She won't ride with you." Shayde shook her head.

"We'll see." Brian grinned, his eyes twinkling.

"Here you go, Dom." Kaidyn came back out, holding the paper outstretched in her hand. Hector put his hands over his eyes, this could only get worse.

"Hey Kaidyn, want to ride with me to Dom's house?" Brian asked, waiting for her answer. The way he saw it, if Kaidyn was going to ride with him, Shayde would surely have to ride along. There was no way she was going to let Kaidyn ride without her.

"Umm, sure. Why not." Kaidyn shrugged, looking at her sister. "You coming Shayde?" She asked, not sure if she should head to Brian's car or not. Brian looked at Shayde, waiting for her reaction.

"Nope, you go ahead and ride with Brian. It's better if we split up. I'll ride with Dom." Shayde got up and headed towards Dominic's car he was uncovering, wiping that smile of Brian's right off of his face.


	13. Chapter 13

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 13

"You just lost any chance of getting Shay to like you, white boy." Hector leaned up and whispered to Brian as they all headed toward different cars.

"Oh well, we'll see about that." Brian said, still not convinced he was done just yet.

"Okay, okay. It's your funeral. Have fun with that ball of energy, man. You are on your own." Hector said, patting his shoulder and getting up to leave. He had done his job trying to warn him. He walked over to Dominic and Shayde.

"He's gonna regret his decision." Shayde shrugged, praying for Kaidyn to bug the heck out of him.

"Oh well, he's about as stubborn as they come, so he can deal with it." Dominic tried to keep from grinning too big as he popped the hood on his car to make sure everything looked good to go.

"As I told him, his funeral." Hector said, shaking his head. "Shay, you want me to go to your house and get some things?" He asked, getting a nod from Shayde.

"Yeah, but they'll just follow you back here." Shayde said, biting her lip.

"Nah, me and my boys will make it look like we're breakin in. We'll hang lose for a while and then bring it over a few hours later. Can you make me a list?" He asked, handing her some paper.

"You know the stuff as good as I do but you might want to have Kaidyn write down some things." Shayde nodded, giving Hector a grateful hug, knowing Brian was watching them.

"Do I have to?" Hector asked, not really wanting to go over to Kaidyn. He knew this would be a never ending list.

"Pretty please?" Shayde held her body at an angle and batted her eyes flirtatiously.

"You are too much. I guess I have no way to avoid that hyper thing you call a sister." Hector said, dejectedly walking over to Kaidyn. She was now walking around and eyeing every car.

"What's up? Want to play a game with me?" Kaidyn asked, holding up her marker in her hand.  
"Nah, I wouldn't want to erase that drawing up there. It's too intense." Hector put his hands in his pockets and followed her around. She looked at him suspiciously.

"What is it that you want?" She asked, sounding almost annoyed, or at least done with him.

"I need a list of what you want from your house." He said, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for what she was about to reply with.

"Okay, I have this green hoodie on my floor that I need, um, all my stuff on my vanity, the makeup and stuff, like all of it." She nodded, getting a nod from Hector as he wrote it down. "Um, I need my books for my online classes and they are in the back of my closet…" She was interrupted.

"You're currently taking classes, right?" He asked, getting a nod from her. "Then why they in the back of the closet?" He asked, scratching his head.

"Because they are ugly. Out of sight, out of mind. Mind your business." Kaidyn traced Brian's car's graphics with her hand as she kept on talking, ignoring his 'oh no you didn't just tell me that' look. "I need my …" She continued to rattle off a long list.

"Is that all?" He asked, praying that it would be. He would need a small moving company by the time she was done if she kept on going. She gave him a nod, looking lost in thought. "You want that jacket on the back of the door, the one you always wear when you travel?" He asked, knowing it was one of her favorites.

"Yes, thank you!" She said, happy she hadn't forgotten to mention that. "And can you make sure to grab that white dress that is strapless of Shayde's in her closet? You don't have to tell her you got it, but I may need to borrow it." Kaidyn snapped her fingers, happy that she had remembered that.

"Yeah, I'm sure she's used to you 'borrowing' her stuff." Hector nodded, saying that with a bit of sarcasm. Kaidyn grinned, ignoring his jab at her and then her face went dark. "What's wrong, Mamacita?" He asked, looking at her sudden mood change as a threat. This could turn badly any minute, he reasoned.

"What about my cat?" She pouted, thinking about him at the last minute.

"There is NO way Dom will let you have her at his house." Hector shook his head, making Kaidyn look even more poutier. "Half the crew is allergic to cats. We can board her at the vet." Hector suggested, knowing Dominic hated cats.

"It's a he, thank you very much." Kaidyn snapped, walking over to Dominic. Hector tried to make eye contact with Dominic and give him a warning look. She was interrupting another small crew meeting apparently, she guessed, seeing as how they were all over there in a group. Hector followed her over, mocking her words silently, acting prissy while he did it. "Dom, we have a problem." Kaidyn didn't bother to wait until he was done talking.

"Ok, and what might that be?" Dominic asked, knowing he really should put her back in her place. She was the exception to his rules, well the majority of his rules. There were some things he wouldn't let her slide on.

"This can't be good." Vince said, trying to look sincere and concerned at what she had to say. She was always a bit too hyper for him, he tried his best to stay as far away from her as he could. Jesse elbowed his best friend, defending her.

"My cat. I can't stay with you if my cat has to stay alone." She folded her arms.

"Oh hell no, we can't have a cat at our house, Dom." Vince got up and muttered.

"Well, I'll pay for him to board at a kennel." Dominic said, shrugging.

"You put dogs in a kennel." Kaidyn shrieked her voice now an octive higher. She was fluent in speaking whine. "You can't board my cat. My cat is fragile." She stomped her foot in protest.

"He'll be fine, Kaidyn." Leon tried to help. Shayde sat back and gave Hector a grin.  
"My money is on Kaidyn on this one." Tej whispered, elbowing Roman, who nodded in agreement.

"No, he won't! Cats can't be away from their owners. They aren't like sloppy old dogs. I can't be without my cat. I won't stay with you guys if I can't bring my cat." Kaidyn said, sniffling. She was now teary eyed.

"Not the tears. Dom's gonna cave, bro." Leon whispered, shaking his head. Tears were something Dominic couldn't handle.

"I'm Not staying with no cat." Vince responded in a low voice.

"Guys, what do you say, can it stay?" Jesse asked, standing behind his best friend. He and Kaidyn were really close, he hated to go up against the other crew but he could understand how much Kaidyn needed her cat.

"Please Dom? Sprinkles can't be without me. He'll get depressed." Kaidyn gave her best pleading eyes to Dominic, who sighed. He hated those teary blue eyes. He looked at Shayde, who looked pretty smug as she sat back with her arms folded while she yawned. She had already known how this was going to end up, she was just waiting on the rest of the crew to realize the cat was going to be in the house.

"Only if he stays in your room. You got it?" Dominic asked, pointing to her for emphasis, trying to keep his tough act on. She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. He will. I promise. He's a good boy." Kaidyn nodded, her eyes now bright and happy again.  
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't let it out or I'll have to be big mean Dom." He gave her a squeeze back.

"What kind of name is Sprinkles?" Vince asked, now doing the pouting. He clearly asked only to criticize and show that he was not happy with this decision but she didn't read it that way. She answered with excitement in her voice, like a typical cat lover would.

"A cute one. He's white and has black sprinkles on him. Well, they are a bit bigger than sprinkles but when he was a kitten, they were like sprinkles." Kaidyn said, seeming to drone on and on to Vince as he tried to tune her out.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll see him soon enough." Vince grumbled, getting up to go to his car. Kaidyn paid him no mind and kept up her sunshineness.

"You sure will." She giggled, happy to be going home to her pet that she considered her baby.

"This cat really mean that much to her?" Roman asked Shayde.

"Oh, you have no idea, Rome. She's got a travel cage for it, pink at that, a regular little house that's pink, she's bottle fed it since it was born, it has baby blankets, she manages to dress it up once in a while and 

he's very spoiled by her. He even has a cat condo and only about a million toys." Shayde laughed, shaking her head.

"Disturbing, huh?" Hector asked, grinning.

"That's pretty normal for cat owners to spoil their cats, isn't it?" Brian piped up, obviously trying to get in the conversation. Hector shook his head at him as if to say 'what are you doin, man'.

"Kaidyn and normal…" Shayde started, giving Hector a look and laughing as she did started.

"Will NEVER be in the same sentence." Both her and Hector finished together, like old friends would be expected to finish each other's thoughts. Shayde thought she saw a glint of longing in Brian's eyes and almost felt bad. She didn't normally treat guys like this, in fact, she hated catty games like this, but her fight to not like him was making her act this way. She fought off feeling guilty, reminding herself that he shouldn't be trying so hard to get close to her when all of their lives were at stake. Neither one of them could afford to mess up because of them liking each other and that was just being honest. Even if he was drop dead gorgeous, smelled delicious, and had the most incredible body she had seen in a long time, she had to be cautious and on her guard, she reminded herself. She found herself finding even more wonderful qualities but Kaidyn tugging on her arm quickly brought her back to reality.  
"Hello, earth to Shay." Kaidyn kept tugging on her arm, trying hard to get her attention.

"Yes, can I help you?" Shayde shook off her thoughts, giving in to her overzealous sister. Everyone had left and it was just the two of them now.

"Dom's been yelling at you that he's ready. You're leavin first." Kaidyn's eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Okay, thank you. You sure you'll be okay?" She asked, moving a piece of hair out of Kaidyn's face.

"I'm good to go." Kaidyn grinned, doing the Taco Bell hand motion that was so famous on one of their commercials that went with that slogan. Kaidyn had her Cheshire cat grin on and it was huge at the moment.

"What?" Shayde asked, trying to not sound so annoying.

"Nothing." Kaidyn clasped her hands behind her back like a little school girl hiding a secret and swayed from side to side.

"Tell me, would ya? I know you're dying to." Shayde said, not really wanting to make her sister tell her, as it was likely nothing good, but she felt obligated to her to act interested.

"You like him, don't you? I saw that look." Kaidyn giggled, making Shayde roll her eyes. As she had suspected, this was nothing good. Why had she even bothered to humor her dear sister, she asked herself in a scold.

"No, I don't. I don't think you should ride with Brian if you are going to act like this, Missy." Shayde frowned, playing with her sister's hair and then tightening her grip on it.

"I won't say _anything_ if you do like him, Sis. I think you two might be a good pair." Kaidyn said, getting a shocked look from Shayde.

"Oh, so you won't let me date people who I like but you'll throw me to the wolves with Brian? Get outta here before I kick your ass." Shayde rolled her eyes, pushing her away.

"Okay, I said _might._ Wow, you're like all sensitive and stuff. Geez." Kaidyn rolled her eyes, knowing that was just another sign that she was onto her sister about her liking Brian. This made her even more hopeful. She vowed to set out on a plight. She was already forming a mental plan on how to 'hook' them up.

"Yeah, cause I don't need my cat-totin sister to fix me up on some date with some goody two shoes cop boy who likes to play superhero, thank you very much." Shayde shook her head, getting her purse out of Hector's car.

"Cat -toting. You're funny, Shay." Kaidyn completely lost the point of the rest of what Shayde had said, laughing hysterically at the description she had given her of herself.

"Yeah, you know I'm right. Go away so I can get goin." Shayde said, hoping to be rid of her sister for a while.

"Let's get goin." Dominic rolled his window down, frowning. He was ready to get out of this garage and back to his home.

"Tell the blonde one that. She's like attached at my hip spewing something that the exorcist obviously possessed her with. I can't get rid of her. I've been trying." Shayde muttered, giving Dominic a pleading look as if to say 'save me'.

"Hey Kaidyn…" Dominic said, making Kaidyn bounce over to his window.

"Yes?" She asked, kneeling down beside him.

"You know how we talked about your cat earlier?" he asked, with a nod, his voice deep.

"Yup." She said, her eyes wide and innocent again.

"Well, if you don't let you sister 'n me get goin, I'm going to change my mind." He threatened, keeping his gaze locked onto hers. "Ya got me?" He asked, getting a nod from her. "Good girl." He grinned, ruffling her hair. She gave him an annoyed growl, hating how people ruffled her hair. It was as if you had blonde hair, it was there for people to ruffle, she thought to herself.

"Go, I'm not stopping you." She stood up, holding out her arms out as though she was setting them free.

"One more thing, behave and go easy on my boy. He's part of my crew and if you rattle him, I'm still not taking that cat in my house, understand?" Dominic asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I read you loud and clear. I would never rattle anybody." She said, playing her innocent act again. Dominic rolled his eyes and started up his car.

"Damn, I don't know how you've done it for so long on your own, Shay." Dominic sighed, shaking his head as they hit the highway.

"You're guess is as good as mine. Oh, and I credit adderall for a lot of it too." Shayde laughed with a nod.

"Yeah, next time, I don't care what we gotta do, we make sure she gets those damn meds." Dominic said, his voice convincing.

"Amen." she agreed. She was silent again, watching the mirrors as they drove.

"We're clear. We're good to go. Send out the next wave." Dominic called Leon on his cell and then hung up. "You okay?" Dominic asked, still not convinced Shayde was doing as good as she was letting on. That was what she was good at, hiding her emotions and pretending things were just great when they were all in ruins. Even after knowing her for so long, he sometimes still had a hard time getting a read on her.

"I'm fine, seriously." Shayde turned her head, hating having Dominic stare at her as if he was looking for something to help his 'feeling' that she wasn't okay. She hated when people did that. It made her turn defensive.

A/n: You all know the drill, please read and review. Hope this chapter was funny! Thanks for reading as always! Cheer


	14. Chapter 14

Blacktop Obsession chapter 14

"All right, Kaidyn. It's time for us to saddle up." Brian sighed, hoping Hector was wrong about him and his decision.

"Let's go cowboy." Kaidyn shrugged.

"Hey, Kaidyn, come here for a minute, would ya?" Hector asked, using his finger to call her over. She bounced right over.

"What is up?" Kaidyn asked sweetly, leaning down on Hector's driver side window as he got ready to start his car. They were all traveling in packs of two so to speak. Hector would lead out and make sure it was clear for Brian and Kaidyn to go and he'd hang behind them about ten miles or so.

"You sure you want to ride wit the white boy over there?" he asked, nodding towards Brian.

"Yeah, I'm sure he's going to love our ride." Kaidyn smiled sweetly mixed with a look of innocence.

"Give him hell, kid." Hector laughed, patting her shoulder. He loved playing both sides. He was rooting for Brian but he didn't want Brian to be able to win Shayde over easily. He was in the perfect position to make sure this didn't happen.

"No problem. He won't get past me." Kaidyn skipped off, making Hector shake his head. He swore she was shaking just like Jesse did. She was so damn hyper. He wished he had her kind of energy all the time.

"They never do, that's for damn sure." He muttered to himself, pulling out. He gave Brian and Kaidyn a big grin and wave when he pulled out.

"So, what kind of music…" Brian had started to ask when Kaidyn reached over to the radio to adjust the station. "Nevermind." He sat back, getting comfortable for the long drive.

"So, you think all juvies are the same or different?" Kaidyn asked, crossing her legs and getting comfortable as well. Brian shrugged, his eyes on the road.

"I don't know, why do you ask?" Brian asked, not sure why she was asking him this.

"Just wondered how your juvie was compared to mine." She shrugged, making Brian look at her.

"Dom tell you I been to juvie?" He asked, trying to not validate her shit eating grin at his shock.

"Nope, I found it on the internet like everyone else does." She said, looking around. She fiddled with the air conditioner.

"You a computer guru like Jesse huh?" He asked, wondering if she was as good as Jesse.

"Uh-huh." She said, sounding distracted. Her eyes were scanning the car, just dying to find something to mess with. "Is this the nos button?" She asked, reaching to his steering wheel and almost pushing it. Brian, startled, fought to react and yell at her.

"Yes, don't touch it." He tried to sound authoritive.  
"Why can't we use it?" She asked, her hand still too close to the button for Brian's comfort.

"Um, I'm out." He lied, focusing on the road and not looking at her in the eyes.

"You are a crappy liar. Probably why you did two years in juvie." She sat back, folding her arms as she studied him.

"You must be too if you got community service and did some time too." Brian countered.

"Nah, I just had sucky attorneys who wanted to get with my sister and who were distracted." Kaidyn shrugged, making Brian laugh at her candidness. "I don't see that as funny." She said, glaring.

"I wasn't laughing at you, really, I just …"Brian stopped, not sure of how to get out of the hot seat on this one.

"Uh-huh. You were probably just laughing cause you can see why they like my sister. I know you like her, Brian." She said, making eye contact with him, her voice almost sounding like a voice in a horror movie. Brian shivered at this thought.

"I think she is very …. I mean, I think we …" he ran a hand through his head, trying to word it correctly. He scolded himself for having a problem talking to this girl. He could look Verone in the eye and tell him he thought his girl was pretty, so why couldn't he tell this girl her sister was hot?  
"Yes…" Kaidyn asked, still staring at him.

"Okay, so maybe I do like your sister. What about it?" Brian asked, suddenly turning to look at her doing the 'stare and drive' but in a different context than what he normally did.

"I was just curious was all. It's no big, wow, you need to relax." Kaidyn shook her head, making Brian's mouth drop. He couldn't believe this girl! She was switching moods on him faster than he could keep up with.

"So, this cat of yours nice?" Brian asked, knowing her likes were a way to get her distracted.

"Oh, he's really awesome. SO cute." She said excitedly, making Brian relax a little bit. It had worked. He knew how to work people really well, he smiled to himself. "But we're not talking about me or Sprinkles, nice try." She said, the smile from her face gone.

"Okay…" Brian said, irritated at himself for thinking he had gotten off so easily.

"So, how was dating a federal agent? Still dating her, Casanova?" She asked a few more miles down the road, out of the blue. This made Brian's face turn red and again he scolded himself for letting this girl get the shock factor on him yet again.

"_What _are you talking about, Kaidyn?" he asked, not trying to hide his shock anymore.

"Fuentes or Flueszy or something like that was her last name." Kaidyn shrugged. "You still a cop?" She asked, her eyes narrowed.

"What the….NO, I am NOT still a cop." Brian said defensively, shaking his head vehemently. "You have no idea who you are talkin about, Kaidyn." He said, now his defenses up.

"My sister _hates _cops, and honestly, I'm not quite fond of them either." Kaidyn inspected her nails nonchalantly.

"I'm not a cop." Brian said through gritted teeth. How was he going to convince her? Hector's words were replaying over and over in his head about her being the one who decided if he had a chance. He had to shift this, he knew. He just wasn't sure how to do it.

"So why'd you get kicked off that soccer team back in middle school?" Kaidyn asked as Brian took a drink of his soda. Now he saw why Hector refused to drink around this girl, he mused. He had looked at Hector earlier, lost as hell when he had divulged that information. "Oops, did I do that?" She asked, covering her mouth in a smart aleck way.

"Yeah, I guess you did. You kinda caught me off guard." He said dryly, trying to keep his temper at even strength. "Do I want to know how you dug that up?" he asked, not getting a reply. "Ok, let's have it, what else do you got on me?" He asked, fearing the worst but knowing this had to be asked. He couldn't handle any more surprises.

"Why would you think I have more?" She asked innocently, batting her eyelashes.

"Because I know you do. Now tell me so I can clear it up." Brian ordered, not playing.

"Ok, why'd you flunk your first driving test?" She asked, giving him time to answer.

"What is important about that?" Brian asked, his face becoming red again. He could feel the temples in his forehead pound.

"I'm just curious. I would think a street racer, if he _is _really a street racer would have already known how to drive." Kaidyn shrugged.

"Oh my hell, Kaidyn. How did you get this information?" Brian asked, rubbing his eyes. He was becoming so tired all of a sudden.

"I got resources." She nodded smugly. "Can we stop so I can get a drink?" She asked, seeing the sign for the gas station up ahead.

"You know Dom and them said we can't stop." Brian sighed, also wishing they could stop. He needed a break, even if it was only a minute or two. Yeah, he needed a minute so he could buy this girl some things to keep her busy. If only he felt like taking the risk. No, he couldn't he decided.

"What are they, prison wardens? Besides, what am I supposed to tell my bladder?" Kaidyn asked, squirming to prove her point. "How much further do we have to drive?" She asked as Brian groaned.

"About an hour and half, maybe two hours." Brian sighed, hating Hector at the moment for being right about this girl.

"I can't wait that long!" She wailed, knowing she was grinding his nerves.

"Just a minute." He said, sighing as he dialed Hector's cell phone. "Hey Hector, you still back there?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Who's this?" Hector asked with a grin.

"Man, don't play with me right now." Brian rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, man, coast is clear. What's up?" He asked as he checked his rearview mirror for the millionth time since he had started to drive.

"I need a break, I mean we, Kaidyn needs to stop at this convenience store. You think it's cool?" he asked, hating to hear Hector's laugh. It was as bad as hearing 'I told you so'.

"Yeah, I'll come up to your car to make sure there's two of us if anything goes down." Hector nodded, feeling like it wasn't any risk to them. There hadn't been a car behind them in a very long time.

"Cool, thanks man." He said hanging up grateful. He had no sooner than pulled up and Kaidyn jumped out, not waiting for him. "K…" He started but she held up her hand and kept walking.

"How's it goin, paleface?" Hector asked, pulling up.

"Don't even say it or I'll run your car off your road." Brian warned. "Yo, man, you got a few bucks?" He asked, leaning on his car with his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, why?" Hector pulled out a small role of 5's. Brian grabbed them and took off.

"Gonna buy her some stuff to keep her hella busy." Brian called over his shoulder as he headed inside.

"What you doing?" Kaidyn came out of the bathroom just in time for Brian to be in line to pay for the armful of stuff he had.

"Paying for some things. Hope you like crosswords." He grinned.

"Ah, the let's keep Kaidyn busy trick, huh? Boy, I know all the tricks in the book. My sister wrote them all." Kaidyn shrugged.

"You don't know what I have, so be quiet." Brian grinned boyishly as though he was proud of himself. She stood by Brian as he laid his things on the counter and tried to look amused.

"Wow, is that all your money you made on the last deal?" Kaidyn asked, her eyes wide.

"What are you talking about?" Brian asked, not understanding her. The older granny looking lady behind the counter peered over with her thick glasses looking at them crankily.

"You know from selling all those little packets of white stuff?" Kaidyn swayed on her feet, twirling her hair. Brian's face went red immediately as he kept his fixed smile on the woman.

"You are insane. Obviously too much sun today." Brian tried to make an excuse for her. '_What a sabotaging little….' _He thought until the lady pushed it back at him.

"I don't sell stuff to people with drug money." She growled, pointing to the door. Kaidyn was sauntering out leisurely. Brian walked up behind her, grabbed her arm and ushered her nicely outside.

"Get in. Get in NOW." He ordered, making Hector stand up. He turned to Hector. "Dude, I'll tell you later. I have to get out of here so can you please go inside and pay for the stuff on that counter? Please tell her that this girl is a rebelling teenager and pay for that stuff? Here's your money." Brian placed it in Hector's hands and leaned on Kaidyn's door so she couldn't get out. Hector was so taken aback that he started to go inside without any questions.

"Hope you have your keys, essay." He said before going inside. This made Brian check his pockets and then thank the car gods that he did. "Here. The lady was ranting about druggies, what in the hell was that all about?" He asked, handing Brian the bag.

"Later man. I have to get her back on the road. I'm sure she'll tell Dom and Shayde some story about how I delayed us." Brian muttered, getting back into his car. He threw the bag in the back seat.

"No, I won't, thank you." Kaidyn said sullen.

"No you won't what?" Brian asked, pulling out.

"You told Hector I'd make some reason on you why we were late." Kaidyn picked at the bottom of her shirt as she sat with her head down, knowing he was more than pissed at the moment.

"You sure about that?" Brian asked, no longer able to hide his agitation.

"Yes, I keep my battles and their happenings to myself." Kaidyn said, holding her chin up defiantly.

"Battle? You think this is a battle? You got serious problems." Brian exploded. It was quiet in the car for at least ten minutes. Kaidyn went to reach for the bag. "Nope, hell no. You stay out of that." He lightly smacked her hand, making her draw it back and look like she'd been wounded in a world war. "I didn't even hit you that hard so don't try it." He warned, his foot feeling like lead on the floorboard. He fought the urge to speed. Getting in his car always gave him urges to speed but when he was mad or upset, he had to really restrain himself from caving to the craving.

"Why are you so freaking mad?" Kaidyn asked, now irritated she couldn't look at the stuff he had bought.

"Ha-ha. You're cute. Shay may have created that set of Kaidynisms but I am on to you now. Don't even act all innocent. You know what you did." Brian said, shaking his head.

"Kaidynisms? I like that." Kaidyn smiled, loving the word. He wasn't going to forgive her that easy, he vowed to himself, even if she was hilarious.

"What would you have done if she'd have called the cops?" He asked, his eyes bright and blazing as they often became when he became furious.

"Well, you are a cop..." She started, but decided to recant that statement as she saw his expression. She wondered if she had pushed him too far. "I mean, _were_ a cop so you'd have gotten off." She shrugged, making him roll his eyes. _'Good save, little girl, good save'_ he thought to himself angrily.

"Yeah, and you think it magically happens like that?" He fumed, not giving her a chance to answer. "It doesn't for your information. But maybe one of my cop friends can take you on a ride with them to see how it _does_ happen." He offered.  
"Um, yeah, no thanks. Why does it have to be drugs anyways? All I said was small bags with white stuff. It could have been anything. It could have been powdered sugar, snow in a bag, baby powder, shaving cream, icing, salt, flour, pulverized candy…" She named off on her fingers and paused for a second.

"Yeah, I get the picture." He grinned, not able to stay mad at her any longer. She was too damn funny.

"I'm sorry. Can we be friends now?" She asked, her eyes looking sincere as she held out her hand.

"I don't know, can we? Can you stop acting like you are your sister's watch dog?" He asked, still grinning.

"Can you do the pageant wave?" She countered back.

"Nope, no can do." Brian said, shrugging as he negotiated.

"Well, then I guess I can't stop being a watch dog and I guess I can't help you with my sister. Too bad. I was starting to think you were an okay candidate." Kaidyn sighed.

"Just okay? After what you put me through?" Brian's eyes went wide.

"Oh, I'm being nice to you compared to what I have done to others, my friend." She said with a convincing nod. "This was only the intro to the initiation." She said, making him almost snort with laughter.

"I feel sorry for them. Are they still residing in the local asylum?" Brian joked, but seriously wondered.

"I don't know, ask Hector. He seems to be sane again." Kaidyn grinned, making Brian confused yet again. Hector had said she hadn't remembered him and that he had never wanted to date Shayde. He reminded himself to ask him about that later.

"Hector's never been sane." Brian said, hoping she couldn't see he was thinking about what she had just said.

"So, what's it going to be? The wave and my sister or we can keep this up all the way home. I have all day and all month. Dom said you stay at that house too." Kaidyn sat back, looking at her watch.

"You think you're tough stuff, don't you?" Brian asked, eyeing her satisfied grin.

"Nope, I don't think. I know." She smiled.


	15. Chapter 15

**Blacktop Obsession chapter 15**

"You seriously want me to do the wave in front of _my crew?_" Brian asked, shaking his head. "I don't know if I can seriously do that, Kaidyn. That's making me sink pretty low." Brian said, having his doubts he could even pull that off.

"Well, I never give out info about my sister either so you know. I could just keep telling her 'he's a cop' and she'll believe me. I'm her certified background digger upper." Kaidyn folded her arms, looking like she wasn't going to give in on this one anytime soon. Brian put on Breaking Benjamin's Diary of Jane song from his IPod.

"So I have noticed." Brian nodded. He looked at Kaidyn with dismay as she flipped through his IPod and changed it to Stop and Stare by One Republic. "That's a heck of a choice." Brian said.

"Do I detect sarcasm?" Kaidyn raised an eyebrow. "Besides, this _is_ your IPod. If you don't like it, why put it on here?" She asked, turning up the volume.

"In case I have a female in the car." Brian said, shifting and settling back for the last part of what seemed to be never ending ride.

"What, am I not female?" She asked, being bratty. "See, that right there tells me you are a ladies' man. Anything to get the girl, eh?" Kaidyn asked, putting on her big rimmed sunglasses. Her remark made Brian scoff.

"Here we go again." He sighed, wondering what she would come up with next. He had gotten her off of the pageant wave at least. He scolded himself for expecting more than being able to get her off of the wave subject. He had to take what he could get.

"Can I please look at a magazine or something?" Kaidyn batted her eyes at Brian and then looked longingly at the bag on his backseat.

"Do you do drama for your talent in these pageants you do? Cause you are so damn dramatic." Brian laughed, throwing the bag to her.

"No, you know, I actually do dance. Like this is one of my favorite songs to dance to. That and 'These Bitches' by Swizz Beats. But you don't have that music on here." Kaidyn said, shrugging.

"Swizz beats in a pageant? They allow cussing in a beauty pageant?" Brian asked, shocked by her admission.

"I just use the song without the words. I love the beat. And no, they don't allow cussing." Kaidyn laughed at his silly question.

"Okay, forgive my ignorance, but what kind of dance do you do?" Brian asked, having a hard time seeing how Kaidyn could focus long enough to learn a dance routine.

"Contemporary to Stop and Stare and crumping to Its Me Bitches." Kaidyn said, getting a shocked look from Brian. "Yes, a white girl can crump." Kaidyn said, moving her arms and dancing to some music that was obviously in her head, seeing as how it didn't match the song she had chosen a few minutes ago.

"Ok, I know that. But crumping at a beauty pageant? You ever win when you do those?" Brian asked, truly intrigued.

"They like uniqueness and individuality." Kaidyn smiled as she tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

"You are about unique as they come, that's for sure." Brian muttered, hoping she didn't hear his comment.

"Ohhh, a crossword puzzle. This is fun." Kaidyn's eyes lit up from being happy to have something to do. "Hmm, a magic word? 6 letters." She read out loud, lifting her glasses up to put on top of her head to be able to count the spaces better.

"Abra cadabera." Brian grinned, knowing it was the wrong answer. Kaidyn hit him with the book.

"6 letters. Hello." She sighed, almost growling.

"I suck at those things. Look it up in the back." Brian grinned.

"Nope, I never look up the answers." Kaidyn folded her arms saying it like she was bragging.

"And you always finish them?" Brian asked, looking skeptical.

"Yeah, I got Shay for a sister. She's hella good at them." Kaidyn said, smiling proudly. "She's smart. You gotta be smart to get with her." Kaidyn said, eyeing him now as though she was re-evaluating him.

"Well, she's not here so look it up or skip it." Brian said.

"Looking it up is cheating and taking the easy way out. Are you a cheater? Cheaters suck." Kaidyn stated, making Brian roll his eyes. She could twist any of his words, any conversation. That seemed to be a talent of hers.

"No, I don't believe in cheating." Brian said, hoping to shut her up.

"Unsocial person. 5 letters." Kaidyn read off now, pen in her mouth.

"Shayde. Without the E." Brian slapped his leg, acting excited to get a clue right. Kaidyn looked at him with her mouth dropped open. "Hello, kidding." He said as she gave him a stare.

"Uh-huh. I'll have to tell her that later." She nodded, tsking her teeth. "These suck! They are hard!" Kaidyn threw the crossword down in frustration.

"It said easy for beginners." Brian shrugged, instantly regretting that after he said it.

"Oh, so you didn't think I could do them in the first place. Well, thanks a lot." Kaidyn said, grabbing the bag and putting the book back in.

"I didn't mean it like that, damn, you are moody." Brian laughed.

" Ohh!! Cosmopolitan! I love the quizzes they have!! I'm going to find one to ask you." She said, already forgetting about the crosswords.

"Don't you read the articles?" Brian said, all his hope draining that she'd be occupied with a magazine.

"Nope, I just go for the quizzes." Kaidyn smiled.

"Fabulous." Brian nodded, giving her a fake smile. His sarcasm didn't even bother her.

"Are you a villainous Vixen? Hmm, I guess we're about to find out, huh Brian?" She asked, getting comfortable and folding her legs underneath her.

"What?" He asked, his eyes big with surprise. He shook his head. "Nope, I'm not taking the quiz. That's for _females_." He said very adamantly.

"So, are you afraid of showing your sensitive side? I heard from Roman that's how you roll." Kaidyn said, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I'm not afraid to show it. And don't worry how I get my dates. Maybe I date less than you think." Brian said.  
"Nope, you have profiles on yahoo, Google, and several dating sites. I saw them. Kind of an odd picture you used on them though." Kaidyn shook her head, scanning over the magazine's pages.

"Those were like 7 years ago, thank you detective." Brian rolled his eyes. "Would you just turn to that page if we're going to do this stupid quiz?" He asked, more than irritated with her at this point.

"I don't skip pages." She shook her head looking at him with big frightened eyes. "That is baddddd luck. Bad ju ju. You have to look at each page or you'll be unlucky in love forever." She said, being serious. Brian howled with laughter and she gave him a defensive, hurt look.

"Wow, and of course you would be superstitious too." Brian nodded, making her finally reach her limit of his comments.

"I'm thirsty." She sighed, looking at the signs ahead.

"Why didn't you tell me that at the last store? I'm not pulling over just for a drink. We have about thirty minutes to go. Are you seriously going to tell me you can't wait for it?" He asked, wanting to scream now. She nodded at him.

"I get cotton mouth from my meds." Kaidyn blinked her eyes, looking pouty.

"Yeah, if only you had taken those today." Brian sighed, pulling into a McDonald's that was located in the middle of the interstate. He dialed Hector as they waited in the line at the drive through.

"You could have went in faster than this." Kaidyn said, sighing impatiently while coughing lightly. Brian knew it was all for effect but kept his mouth shut.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't have you telling them I was a druggie again, now could I?" Brian asked, pulling up to the window.

"I wouldn't have told them that. That's old news. Now, I may have told them you robbed a bank but that's besides the point." Kaidyn shrugged, getting a drop dead look from Brian. He thrust the drink at her and pulled away from the drive through. She took the lid off and picked up the ice with her straw, eating it daintily.

"Be careful and put that lid back on, would you?" Brian asked, keeping his eyes on the road. Hector zoomed up behind them, then on the side of them.

"Do your wave to him and I'll let you off the hook from the other guys." Kaidyn said, her eyes gleaming mischievously.

"What..no!" Brian replied as him and Hector each sped and passed the other one on the double interstate.

"Well, info on my sister for a wave to one person. Hmm, I'd take the deal." Kaidyn said, obnoxiously chomping on her ice.

"Fine, whatever." Brian held up his hand and did the wave, making Hector point and laugh. Hector dropped back and slowly became a small car in the rearview mirror from the distance.

"Hehe. You did it! Way to go. You'd make a good candidate! Can I enter you in the next one?" Kaidyn asked, playing with her now iceless drink.

"No, you can't." Brian said, wishing he could orb the car to the house now.

"Okay, back to our quiz. Are you a villainous vixen?"Kaidyn said, settling back in her seat again. "Question one…you are having a night out with a group of girls that you haven't seen for a while, and you want to impress them… you a, aim for smart casual, as you don't want to look as though you are trying too hard. B, you dress feminine or girly, after all you don't need to dress sexy for a bunch of girls…" Kaidyn giggled, making Brian groan at this one.

"This is ridiculous." Brian growled.

"Oh come on, quit being a baby and listen to the options. C, you plan your outfit like a military operation with fashion gear and even a fur coat or fur jacket if you can get away with it. When asked about your clothes, you innocently reply what, this old thing?" Kaidyn finished, then looked at him, waiting for an answer.

"A." Brian sighed, just randomly picking the first one.

"Of course, you're a flashy person." Kaidyn nodded judgingly.

"Okay, fine b, then." Brian said, getting tired of this game he was playing with her.

"You mean you wouldn't care at all how you'd look? Ugh, total fashion no-no." Kaidyn looked at him, her eyes wide as though he had committed an atrocity.

"Fine, then c. Geez, you do realize none of the answer s apply to me, right?" Brian asked, running a hand through his hair, stressed.

"Ugh, you'd be one of those girls. I hate those fashion divas who scream look at me but then when you do and ask them something, they act all like they don't know what you are talking about. Drives me nuts." Kaidyn wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Oh my god, see, there's not going to be a right answer for you, is there?" Brian finally exploded, being louder than he had anticipated.  
"Fine, I'll keep my mouth shut. IF that will make you happy." Kaidyn pouted, throwing her hands up. When her hands went back down, she had accidentally flipped over her cup of coke. It was as though she was watching the cup fall over and drench Brian's phone in slow motion.

"Damn it." Brian held up his new phone as it dripped the sticky liquid substance.

"I'm so sorry." Kaidyn held a hand over her mouth, it still open.

"Yeah, you sure about that?" Brian asked, his annoyed tone very apparent.

"Yes, I'm sure. I wouldn't fuck it up on purpose." Kaidyn sniffled, now feeling really bad. Brian wondered how it was she was the one sniffling, it was his phone.

"Watch that mouth of yours." Brian said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm sorry." Kaidyn wiped her eyes.

"Don't try that crying on me. Wipe up those tears. NOW." Brian ordered.

"I didn't mean to." Kaidyn said quietly, doing as she was told.

"You owe me now, big time, kiddo." Brian grinned suddenly, as though this realization had just hit him like a light bulb going off in his head.

"Owe you? Ha,hahahahah." Kaidyn laughed, but knew he was right.

"That or I can sue you for all the damages and get a new phone." Brian said, making her smile disappear. "I know friends in high places. I _**used **_to be a cop, ya know." He grinned, loving his new found power.

"You so wouldn't do that because then you'd really dig yourself deep with Shay." Kaidyn ventured to say, watching him to see if he was bluffing or not.

"Hey, I have balls. I've been told that by your brother, face to face. And besides, if I'm such a ladies' man, who says I can't still win your sister over, hmm?" He asked, his eyes twinkling. He was loving having this power over her. It looked like luck was finally turning on his side for once.

"Dang it." Kaidyn sat back and sighed in defeat. Brian, picking up on her concession, decided to use this to the full advantage.

"So, let's make sure we're on the same page here, _Kaidyn._" Brian cleared his throat, emphasizing her name. "Anytime I have a question, you will be so sweet and helpful by answering it the best you can and as fast as you can, right?" He asked, looking at her with a smug smile. He was loving this.

"Yes, I guess. But you know this is blackmail, right?" Kaidyn asked, chewing on the side of her nail.

"Yeah, I know. I used to be a cop, remember?" He asked, slapping her hand out of her mouth, having seen Shayde do that earlier.

"Ugh, you are impossible with a capitol I." She grumbled, getting a laugh out of him.

"Imagine that. I don't know where I could have learned that from." He said dryly, thinking on his questions he wanted to ask. He turned to her again. "You promise that you won't tell Shay what I'm askin, right?" He asked, turning serious.

"Yes, good grief, can we get on with this?" Kaidyn asked, not happy how the tables were now turned. Plus, her seat was wet and it was making her cranky.

"Just pretend you are filling out one of your quizzes and it'll be painless." Brian joked, Kaidyn not seeing it as funny. "Fine, if you had to give me 7 words to sum up your sister, what would they be?" he asked. Kaidyn thought about that one for a minute. "Buzz. Time's ticking. Get to it." Brian nudged her playfully and got a drop dead look in return.

"I'm thinking, here, hello." She snapped, not liking to be put under pressure. That would be why she hadn't graduated out of high school just yet and was almost more than two years behind.

"Uh-huh. I say more like stalling." Brian nodded, looking at her suspiciously.

"Ok, ok. Relax. You don't have a deadline where your time runs out. I certainly know 7 words I'd describe you as." Kaidyn noted.

"Ha, it's not about me, dear. It's all about Shay from now on." Brian rubbed his hands together with anxious anticipation.

**A/n: So sorry on how long it took to update, I was in the emergency room for a lil bit but here is the long awaited update. There's so much more to come but I couldn't cram it all into one chapter so if you want the next chapter ( that is already wrote and ready to go, fyi) I need reviews! Please read and review, you'd make my day and make me feel tons better, hahahhahhaha. Later guys! Cheer**


	16. Chapter 16

**Blacktop Obsession chapter 16**

"So, what is the answer? Time's wasting." Brian said, getting an annoyed look from Kaidyn as he checked his watch.

"7 words? You're stressing me, Brian. I'm going to ruin you with Shayde and you'll never have a chance." Kaidyn swore in what seemed to be almost a hiss.

"Oh well, I'll be dateless but with plenty of money, huh?" Brian asked with a grin as they entered LA city limits. He only had maybe twenty-thirty more minutes with her so he knew he should probably leave her be and let her answer.

"Gaurded, Non-trusting." Kaidyn named off two on her hands.

"Nope, that last one doesn't work." Brian interrupted her.

"What? Why not? It's one word, hyphenated, but one word." She protested.

"No, that's not why. It's because it's almost the same as guarded." Brian said, ending that discussion.

"Okay, promiscuous." Kaidyn said, watching for Brian's reaction. To her disappointment, he didn't blink an eye. "Okay, that's not really one, I just wanted to see what you'd think of it." Kaidyn admitted, shrugging.

"You owe me six more." Brian said, the car veering to the right wrap around of the high way. He had almost missed the exit.

"Guarded, clever, laid back, loyal…. She really is very loyal. Are you loyal to your friends?" Kaidyn asked, again getting off the subject.

"It's not about me. Focus." Brian commanded and she didn't argue for once. He nodded approvingly.

"Guarded, clever, laid back, loyal, focused…what the hell kind of number is 7? Did you just pick that out of the blue?" Kaidyn asked, again getting off track.

"My lucky number." Brian replied with a grin. "FOCUS." He popped her on the forehead lightly as if to remind her.

"Guarded, clever, laid back, loyal, focused, dangerous, and temperamental." Kaidyn said, her voice tone a bit higher, excited she had been able to finish her task.

"Interesting. So now tell me why you say those ones." Brian said, ready for some pushback on this request.

"Guarded, because she doesn't trust many people, Laid back because she's always just like this cool person who doesn't really stress about much, loyal cause she'd never sell out her friends even if she was a cop…" Kaidyn said, getting a dig in on him. He had expected that one and 

didn't act any different, again making Kaidyn become somewhat frustrated. "Focused because if she sets a goal, she gets it done. If she puts her mind to it, look out, it will happen. Same with her promises. She always keeps them." Kaidyn said.

"Good, then that gives me hope you'll keep mine too when I come to you for info." Brian laughed at his poetic statement.

"Hardy har har." Kaidyn rolled her eyes and flipped her hair indignantly. "Yeah, I keep my promises too. If people shut up and let me, that is." She grumbled. He held up his hands innocently, batting his eyes to make his point. "Dangerous because she has a temper and she does what she needs to do to get what she needs to do even if it means jail or dying." Kaidyn said, knowing Brian was going to pry more on this. She held up her hand to say just a minute. "And temperamental because she has one heck of a temper. It's worse than a tornadic typhoon at times." Kaidyn finished, folding her arms.

"So why do you say she'll do anything including jail? Has she done jail time?" He asked, sitting up, now interested.

"I thought you had all her background info?" Kaidyn asked, now chewing on her straw.

"Nah, I didn't pry. Figured it would piss her off." Brian looked Kaidyn in the eyes to show he was being truthful.

"Interesting. What a saint you are. Or trying to be." Kaidyn debated on giving up her inside info. "She got into a fight at the races and someone had slashed her tires so they caught her and put her in the slammer." Kaidyn said, making it sound like no big deal.

"So she's a fighter, huh? Interesting." Brian grinned, loving how Kaidyn was squirming uncomfortably.

"Yes, she's human too, you know." Kaidyn said defensively.

"I'm not saying it's bad. I think it's hot." Brian said, looking away from Kaidyn now. He couldn't hide his grin.

"You have it for her bad, don't you?" Kaidyn asked, just now realizing how much Brian really did like her. She couldn't explain how she could tell but something in his eyes told her that he really did have it bad for her, maybe even more than just a crush. But she wasn't going to let him win her over just that easy. He was making it hard, but he wasn't going to get off this easy.

"No, I am just intrigued by her." Brian said, looking at the road now and really focusing on his driving.

"Wow, you are a horrible liar. How is it that you fooled Dom again?" Kaidyn folded her arms, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"How is it that you can ask so many questions?" Brian shot back, a shit eating grin on his face now. "Okay, moving on, what's her weak points?" Brian asked.

"Don't you know you _never_ tell anyone your weaknesses, let alone anyone else's? We're cool now but what if you were to be taken over by pod people and you tried to destroy her or kidnap her?" Kaidyn asked, looking at Brian suspiciously. This made Brian laugh for a second.

"Okay, fine. What has made her so sour on relationships?"Brian asked, really wanting to know the answer to this.

"Who said she's sour on relationships?"Kaidyn asked, folding her legs underneath her Indian style now.

"Well, she told me she hasn't been in one in a long time, so why is that?" Brian asked.

"Not everyone is a Casanova like you." Kaidyn giggled, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not a Casanova, thank you." Brian said dryly, wondering why this girl would not answer any of his questions. She reminded him of the books he had read back in the day where you chose your own endings. The outcome could always change and with Kaidyn, this seemed to be the case with her and her moods."Just answer me without any comments, please." He said, trying to be civil and hide his annoyance."Seriously. Just answer this one for me with an honest answer, at least this one." Brian said, hating to sound like he was begging.

"Would you want a relationship if you had a booty call at your beck and call?" Kaidyn asked, then immediately put a hand to her mouth, realizing she should _not _have said that. Brian coughed uncomfortably, not knowing what to say to that one. "I'm just kidding. I was joking." Kaidyn said, shifting in her chair, clearly lying. The flushed face that she had told Brian she wasn't joking but that she had slipped up."Oh, you got that quiet face, you're thinking all kinds of horrible things, like that wasn't even right, I mean, it's wasn't even meant to be like that. I was totally joking. You totally can't even take me serious. I mean, I really was just joking. I think you might have a chance with her, and I um…" Kaidyn kept rambling on.

"It's fine, girl. No worries." Brian said, coughing and covering his mouth with his hand to hide his expression. He wasn't sure how to react to that one. The only question he wanted answered was _who _was it that she was so conveniently able to call, he wondered.

"Yeah, you say that but I know you don't believe me." Kaidyn said, fiddling with her hands nervously. She almost looked like she was sweating too. "I really was just playing. Why you so quiet? Ask me another question. I'll be serious this time." She promised, looking a bit flushed.

"I'm not thinking anything, I promise." Brian lied through his teeth."So how can I stay on her good side or get on her good side, I guess I should say." Brian said.

"Not make her think you're a cop, not push her…" Kaidyn said, a small smile of relief on her face as she answered. She felt guilty for disclosing facts on her sister in the first place but that last question's answer had been accidental."Okay, on the real. Don't act like a cop, make sure to keep your promises because she hates people who don't keep promises, and be yourself. She hates fake people and liars. She really, really hates liars. So as long as you tell the truth, keep 

your promises, and act like a normal person, you'll be fine." Kaidyn said with a nod. "Hey this street looks familiar!" She jumped up and down.

"Yeah, we're close. Ten minutes and we'll be there." Brian nodded, trying to exit off of the freeway. He frowned at the heavy traffic. "Or maybe twenty, depending on traffic." He corrected himself, knowing Kaidyn would call him out if he was wrong.

"I hate this kind of traffic." She pouted, sitting up and then sitting back while she grumbled. Brian wanted to give her a sedative but he figured he had made it this far, so he'd have to handle the last part of the ride.

"Yeah, it's not very quick today." Brian said, concentrating on the cars in front of him. His phone rang and he answered it, hoping she'd be quiet.

"Yo, Holmes. I just got word from my boys that the girl's house was broke into already. I couldn't get Shay on the phone so I just thought I'd let you know since you are getting close to getting there. Can you pass that on for me? " Hector asked, chewing on his toothpick.

"Yeah, any idea if it's related?" Brian asked, trying to not frown. He knew Kaidyn would pick up on that pretty quickly.

"Yeah, I'm sure it is. Both their computers are smashed to hell, it's ransacked, trashed. I just pulled up to it and all the windows are busted. Had to have been more than one person." Hector sighed as he stepped over some things on the floor.

"Be careful, man. You still gonna bring it over later?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course. How's Blondie doing?" Hector asked, getting on his knees in Kaidyn's room to look for her cat. It would be a long night if they couldn't find that cat. The cat jumped out at him and hissed, making Hector fall back and scream.

"You okay bro?" Brian asked with a mixture of concern and amusement in his voice.

"She said that this fucking cat is nice my ass. Damn bitch." Hector said, running after it to make sure the animal didn't jump through a window. "Damn thing hates me, Brian." Hector said between gritted teeth, making Brian howl with laughter. He could hear the cat growling at him as Hector continued to curse.

"Aw, well, there's one person you can't work your magic on, huh?" Brian teased, making Hector scoff on the other end.

"You're funny, O'Conner, so damn funny." Hector rolled his eyes. "Aight, I'll see you later. Tell Shay to call me if you talk to her first, cool?" He asked.

"Yeah, will do." Brian said with a nod as he crawled slowly through the traffic.

"Who was that?" Kaidyn asked.

"Noneya." Brian joked.

"It was Hector, huh?" She asked, chewing on her lip nervously.  
"No, what would make you say that?" Brian asked, shocked she would think that right off the bat.

"Just think it was. It had to be something bad. What's wrong?" She asked, now chewing on the corner of her perfectly manicured pink nail that had the playboy logo brush painted on them in black with a diamond for the bunny's eyes. She moved it out of her mouth just as Brian reached over to slap it away.

"It wasn't anything bad." Brian said, not wanting to alarm her.

"I'm a lot like my sister. I don't like liars." She said in a warning tone and a shake of her head. "Just tell me, I'm a big girl, I can handle it." She sighed, now annoyed at Brian's secretive act.

"I guess you're right." He sighed, not really wanting to tell her this. Who knew how she'd react. "Your house was broken into and they tore up your house." Brian said, cringing at what her reaction was about to be.

"Damn Carter. He's such a jackass." She seethed. Then she sat up, almost looking panicked. "Did he kill my cat? Cause I'll kill him if he did!" She said, her cheeks becoming a flushed red color now.

"No, he's fine. I heard him growling at Hector." Brian laughed, still finding it funny that the cat hated Hector. Kaidyn looked relieved. "Why does he hate Hector so much?" He asked, interested to find this answer out as he scratched his chin.

"I don't know. Maybe Hector hates cats and he can sense that." Kaidyn said, her eyes dark and serious.

"Come on, you really think cats can sense that kind of thing?" Brian asked, not wanting to have to divulge any more information from Hector's call.

"Yes, I do. He's only a 6 month old kitten but he's smart as heck. Do you _like_ cats, Brian?" She asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously as she studied his face, trying to read his answer before he answered.

"Um, yeah. Well, kinda." Brian shifted, knowing he had to find a way to spin the truth in his favor. "As long as they aren't like all mean and stuff, I can handle em." He said, which was the truth. He didn't _not _like them but he didn't like them either, they were just okay to him. He hoped she would be satisfied with this answer.

"My cat's not mean, he just don't like Hector. He always puts him up in his cage when he's over there." Kaidyn said in an irritated voice.

"Oh yeah? Is that a lot?" Brian asked, then realized how that had sounded. "I mean, is that a lot that he locks the cat up?" he asked nonchalantly.

"I mean, no, not if you can get Hector and Shay separated. They seem like they are joined at the hip most of the time. But he puts him up in his cage instead of my room and if he just put him in my room, he has a 5 story cat condo that goes up to the ceiling because he knows when he's not wanted And just because he knows how to open my door is not a reason to cage him." Kaidyn said with a nod."And when I'm gone, Sprinkles stays in Shay's room and she has a cage and Hector _always _puts him up for her." Kaidyn said.

"A 5 story cat condo to the ceiling? Does it have like toys and stuff too all in it? Like a doll house or something?" Brian asked, finding this to be interesting. He had never known they could make something like this. This distracted him from thinking about her last sentence because he was sure she could read the majority of his thoughts.

"Yeah, Hector got it for Sprinkles around Christmas time this past year. Maybe he'll be able to disassemble it and bring it with him." Kaidyn said hopefully. Brian remembered the remark about people always buying Kaidyn stuff to get on her good side and wondered if Hector's intent was the same. He was jolted from his thoughts as an ambulance came whirring by them, speeding in and out of the traffic congestion.

"I don't know. He said there was some stuff damaged." Brian said, not thinking about what he said before saying it. He immediately regretted that statement.

"Like what? Anything specific?" She asked, sitting up now.

"Umm, your computers is the one thing he mentioned specifically." Brian said, turning off onto the street that would eventually lead them to Dominic's street.

"Damn it!" She hit her lap in frustration. "I can't be in lock up with no freaking computer." She growled, now mad.

"Who says you're going to be in 'lockup'?" He asked, laughing at her terms.

"I know how Shay is and I know we can't leave that stupid house and gawd, that really sucks. He would mess with our computers." Kaidyn folded her arms and looked outside, pouting and stewing.

"What kind did you have? A pink one?" He asked jokingly.

"Yes, it was a pink notebook and I had a pink cooling pad and all the stuff for it." She sighed.

"What kind of notebook does Shay have?" Brian asked for curiosity's sake.

"She doesn't. She has a desktop. She's not all about her computer like I am. I live on the internet. I watch my hockey games when I can't make it to games, I do my schooling on there, I chat and find my pageants and dresses on there, I work with chorographers and on dances and stuff on there…" Kaidyn sulked, her mood worsening.

"Research people's life history." Brian interjected, trying to get a smile out of her. It didn't work.

"I'm doomed." She moaned, putting her hands over her eyes and putting her head to her knees.

"The world is not ending." Brian promised.

"For you, no. You get to go to the garage, race cars, hit on chicks, go outside, get greasy, and all that stuff." Kaidyn sighed, looking up now.

"Hit on chicks. Cute. You just don't miss a beat getting in a jab at me, do you?" He asked, shaking his head in amusement.

"It comes from my love of hockey and messing with the other team. And I enhance my skills by talking smack at races too."She replied in her the world's doomed tone of voice.

"Yeah, I can see you have the mouth for it." Brian nodded, not even getting a response. He looked over at the 18 year old girl and saw she really was upset, this time it was not an act. "We're here." He said, pulling up and putting his brake on. He checked the rearview mirror for the hundredth time to make sure the coast was clear to usher her inside. Dominic's house was dark, the shades on the inside kept out all the light from projecting outside, something Dominic preferred to keep people out of their business.

"I wonder if they'll have a welcome to your new doom banner inside waiting for me." Kaidyn threw her body around listlessly as they got out just as a five year old who was being made to come inside from playing would have walked in. Brian had to laugh despite it all. This girl was a dramatic little handful.

**A/n: Thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying! Please feel free to review, in fact, please leave a review! Hehe. It is much appreciated. Hope all is well and until next time, Cheer**


	17. Chapter 17

**Blacktop Obsession chapter 17 **

"Well, look what the cat drug in." Dominic grinned as he sat in his favorite chair in his living room with Shayde on the couch, sitting somewhat upwards.

"Long drive, Brian?" Shayde asked, smiling.

"No, it was fine." Brian nodded, not knowing if she could tell he was lying.

"Sure it was. Let me go get you a beer." Shayde smiled coyly and Brian immediately knew she could tell he was trying to bluff her.

"Thanks." He grinned, somewhat taken aback at her niceness. She almost seemed to be flirting with him.

"Hey, have you talked to Hector?" He asked, nervously following her into the kitchen as he fiddled with the tab on the beer.

"Yeah, about ten minutes ago. He had forgotten my cell was in our stuff in the trailer. But he called Dom after he called you." Shayde said, nodding.

"Well, okay, just wanted to make sure." He said, flashing her a grin. He hated to admit it but this girl could really make him nervous.

"Was she well behaved?" Shayde asked, sarcastically acting like a parent would about their child.

"She was good. I kept her entertained." Brian nodded, leaning on the counter.

"I bet _she _kept you entertained, didn't she, playboy?" She asked with a laugh and walked back into the living room. Brian wanted to follow her but didn't want to seem like a puppy dog trailing her so he stayed in the kitchen.

"You look like you been drug through hell, homie." Roman came in, shaking his head at how tired Brian looked.

"That bad, huh?" Brian nodded.

"Yup. Worse even." Roman said seriously then grinned. "So, find out any inside info?" He asked, sitting down.

"Not really. That girl is good at getting around questions, man. She's a little nuts." Brian whispered, leaning up so there would be no chance no one could over hear them.

"I think she's the shit. She's funny as hell. She obviously got your number on speed dial." Roman laughed.

"Shut up or they'll hear you." Brian ordered, looking a bit nervous.

"Wow, Shay got you all trippin." Roman laughed, amused and loving getting to mess with Brian. "Another female. Who woulda thought?" Roman joked.

"Oh, that's it, _Mr. Roman Pearce._" Brian jumped up and grabbed Roman and put him in a headlock and lightly punching Roman's bald head.

"I'm not scared, you know I'm tellin the truth." Roman said, finally freeing himself and straightening out his shirt.

"You're real cute." Brian rolled his eyes. "Want to go to the store with me? I might need some help with something." Brian's eyes sparkled like they always did when he was up to something.

"Oh, boy. This should be good." Roman groaned, covering his eyes.

"I need to go get the girls some computers. Hector said the way to Shay was through her sis and long story short, they need computers. Kaidyn really would like me then." Brian said, grabbing his keys as though the idea had just hit him like a light bulb that had went off in his head.

"Tell me you're kiddin! Man, you know it's gonna piss Shayde off if you do that shit." Roman said, his arms outstretched and pointing into the living room.

"Well, I see it this way." Brian grinned goofily. "I can worry about her once I get past the Kaidyn hurdle." Brian laughed. "Trust me, I had the _whole_ ride to think about how to get past her. And I learned a lot about Kaidyn. The girl is complex. Shay will be the easy one" Brian nodded.

"Wow, okay, if you say you got this, Bro. I'm with ya. Let's hit the road before the stores close, fool." Roman shrugged, holding up his hands as if to say 'this one's on you'.

"Dom, we'll be back in a bit." Brian called, grabbing his keys out of his pockets.

"In a hurry?" Shayde asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at Brian.

"Rome's on a schedule and needs to eat." Brian said, watching Shayde open the door for him. He gave her a smile and she somewhat gave him a smile.

"Just be careful. He's after you too, you know." She warned as they left. Then she locked the door behind them.

"She's scaring me, dog. She's right you know. They could have snipers on us right now." Roman shivered, holding one arm with the other one.

"Relax man. No one followed us. He won't think to look for us down here yet." Brian said, fiddling to find his key in the dark late night sky.

"So you say. What if Fuentes sold us out to him? Or …" Roman said, his voice tone flat.

"She wouldn't do that." Brian rolled his eyes, finally finding the key.

"So you say. For all you know she could have gotten his butt out. She could be talking to him on the dl. Shit, maybe he's holding her with force and tracing her phone records." Roman sighed, starting to freak his own self out a bit now. The wind blew and it made him jump, causing Brian to laugh.

"She wouldn't do that and she's got a phone that's continually tapped by the feds, bro. No chance to get to her." Brian disputed his friend's fear. "But he'll probably come after you first since you had to shoot that mouth of yours off about dropping the soap." Brian teased.

"You're just so funny." Roman said, impatiently fidgeting for Brian to find the key. "If he _was_ out here with snipers, we'd be dead by the time you'd find that damn key." Roman muttered. Just then, Hector pulled up in the driveway, his lights off. This scared Roman and he made a dive for the bushes.

"It's just me, it's just me." Hector laughed, holding his side from laughing so hard.

"I knew it was you. I was just testin my drivin skills, cuz." Roman nodded indignantly, dusting off his pant legs.

"Sure you were." Hector laughed, carrying an armful of bags and a few suitcases.

"Where's this demon cat I've heard so much about?" Brian asked, poking Hector in the side and making Hector kick at him.

"Yo, that's not funny. I was hoping he'd let himself out of his damn cage and jump outta my damn car." Hector complained, motioning towards the back seat of his car.

"Aw, Sprinkles just wants to be your friend. I hear you guys have history." Brian laughed, going to get the cat out of the back.

"Brian, you can play with the cat later. We got to get goin if you want to get done what you need to get done, fool." Roman chided, making Brian nod.

"We'll be back in a bit. You still be here?" Brian asked, starting to get into his car.

"Yeah, I should be. I want to make sure the girls get settled in and all." Hector nodded. Shayde opened the door as if on cue, taking the stuff out of his arms.

"Here, Shay, let me get that stuff. You want to go show Kaidyn her room?" Dominic put down his remote and got up to help grab the stuff out of Hector's hand.

"Sure, thanks, Dom." Shayde smiled gratefully, putting her arm around Kaidyn. Neither Dominic nor Shayde wanted Kaidyn to be pacing near the door, considering the situation they were in right now.

"Let's go see your room, girly girl." Shayde led her to the stair way.

"But I wanted to go see if Sprinkles was okay." Kaidyn whined, her body dragging heavily on purpose.

"He's fine. You know Hector is good to him. Let's go." Shayde ordered in her it's not negotiable voice.

"Ugh, I guess." Kaidyn said.

"Don't you want to see if you are going to like it? Cause if you don't, then we can order you some stuff from the internet to decorate it." Shayde massaged her sister's shoulders.

"No we can't. Our computers were destroyed." Kaidyn pouted.

"Well, you can borrow Jess's or one of the guys until we get new ones." Shayde said, not letting her sister pout.

"Good luck getting Jess off of his." Kaidyn grumbled.

"It's fine, we'll figure something out." Shayde scolded.

"We could just take a quick trip to the mall tomorrow." Kaidyn said, sounding hopeful.

"KK, you know what we talked about. You know we have to stay here and can't go out." Shayde sighed.

"What about my community service I have to do?" Kaidyn asked, her long pouty face debuting again.

"I already have it handled. I have all of this worked out. You, dear sister, just have to listen and trust me."Shayde said with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah." Kaidyn replied.

"Look, here's your room. What do you think?" She asked, holding out her arms like she was selling the place.

"Hmm, I have to look it over." Kaidyn scratched her chin, looking around observing as though she had a choice as to whether or not she took the room. "Hmm, I love the full length mirror." She said, posing away from the mirror and looking back into it over her shoulder as she did what the rapper Juvenile would call 'backing that thing up.' Shayde rolled her eyes at Kaidyn watching her shake her butt in the mirror. _Typical Kaidyn_, she thought.

"Does it fit your needs, _Princess Kaidyn?_" Shayde asked with an amused smile.

"Yes, I think it…..oh wow, is that a window seat? Beautiful! I've always wanted one of those!" Kaidyn drew in a sharp excited breath when she saw the window seat. She opened the blind and saw the tree right next to her window. "OW!" She said when Shayde slapped her hand away from the blinds.

"Hello, you can't open that blind!" Shayde said in her 'duh' tone of voice.

"How am I supposed to get inspired to do anything if I can't even look outside?" Kaidyn groaned, sounding miserable.

"You'll live, I'm pretty sure." Shayde said dryly.

"I'm not so sure. So…let me get this straight. I have a window seat but I can't use the window?" She asked, getting an annoyed look from Shayde. She held her hands up innocently. "I was just making sure I understood." She sighed.

"Uh huh." Shayde nodded, folding her arms. "I thought you'd like the hardwood floor in here so you can dance or do whatever it is that you call dancing." Shayde said, a bit upset her sister wasn't taking this sudden move as well as she had hoped.

"It's awesome, gorgeous, magnificent..." She started but was interrupted by Shayde.

"I get the point." Shayde said, knowing her sister all too well.

"Good God, what do you have in these damn bags?" Dominic grumbled, his face red as he lugged up two heavy suitcases to Kaidyn's room. "Which one is yours, Kaidyn?" He asked, ready to cart the other one to Shayde's room.

"Those are both mine." Kaidyn said, clapping her hands excitedly.

"She ever get freaking tired?" Dominic leaned over to Shayde and whispered, checking his watch.

"Nope, not usually. She can go on about 3 hours sleep a day. Still want us to live here?" Shayde asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Debatable." Dominic grinned.

"Someone order some shoes up in here?" Hector asked, dumping a basketful of what seemed to be about 30 pairs of shoes ranging in colors and size of heels.

"Yay! My shoes!" Kaidyn scrambled to start matching them up.

"You need _all _those shoes?" Dominic asked, scratching his head in awe. Even when Letty and Mia had been here, they didn't have half as many as shoes combined as what he was seeing Kaidyn have.

"Yeah, why not?" Kaidyn asked, not seeing a problem with what he was seeing.

"Don't, you'll never get anywhere." Shayde said, shaking her head with a warning.

"Where's Sprinkles?" Kaidyn asked, looking behind Hector.

"That damn thing is still in my car. He got out of his cage and he is like growling at me." Hector said, folding his arms. "I'm not messing with him. I got him here. Dom can go get that damn growl box." Hector shook his head vigorously.

"You scared of a kitten? Damn, you have gone soft." Dominic sighed.

"Aw, poor Sprinkles! He's probably scared out there! Dom!" Kaidyn cried, rushing downstairs.

"I'm coming. Damn you, Hector. You couldn't have at least let him escape outside, could you?" Dominic muttered.

"Yeah, that wouldn't have been good either. I'd never hear her shut up about it then for sure." Hector said, following Dominic downstairs.

"Damn you, Hector. I thought for sure you'd lose that damn cat too. Why'd you have to bring it here?" Vince asked, standing in the doorway as Dominic carried in the cat carrier.

"And your life would have been a bigger hell than with the cat. I did you all a favor." Hector promised, laughing at big tough guy Dominic carrying in a girly pink colored cat carrier.

"Everyone, I want you to meet Sprinkles." Kaidyn said excitedly as she pulled the cat out of its carrier. She held up a predominantly white cat with big black circles on his back, one paw black with the other three white, and a patch over his eye.

"How'd you get a name like Sprinkles when you shoulda called him Patches?" Leon asked, staring at the kitten that was famously known for being spoiled.

"Because there are tiny specks of black on his tail and it reminded me of sprinkles on a cake." Kaidyn said, hugging her kitten closely.

"Just make sure the thing stays in your room." Vince nodded, standing up and yawning. "I'm going to bed. Night guys." He said and with that, he left.

"His condo is in my trunk." Hector told Kaidyn as he started to sit down.

"Good, he'll have a familiar bed to sleep in tonight. Thank you, Hector." Kaidyn smiled appreciatively.

"You want that put up tonight?" Hector asked, his face looking shocked.

"Yeah, you don't want Sprinkles to have stay in his cage all night, do you?" Kaidyn asked, rocking her kitten in her arms.

"No, no, I guess we wouldn't want that." Hector sighed, not bothering to sit down. He knew she wouldn't rest until he put it up. He trudged back outside to get started on his slave work.


	18. Chapter 18

Blacktop Obsession chapter 18

"Hey Shay, you got a minute?" Brian asked, his head ducked into her room after knocking.

"Sure, it seems I'll be having a lot of time in the next few days." She retorted dryly. "What are you grinnin for?" She asked, her arms folded at his almost cheesy smile. It was almost midnight now and she was tired, ready for bed, and hoping what he wanted wasn't going to take too long.

"I got a surprise for you." He looked down the hallway as though he was telling a secret and then looked back at her.

"For me?" Shayde asked, her eyebrow raised quizzically.

"Yeah, come downstairs with me." Brian said, pulling on her arm. Shayde pulled it back and rolled her eyes.

"If I do, will you leave me alone?" She asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't." Brian joked.

"Great, my sister rubbed off on you. Lovely." Shayde sighed, following Brian."Speaking of her, have you seen her?" Shayde asked, straining her head to see down the hallway to her sister's new room to see if there was a light on or not.

"No, I haven't seen her. She's probably asleep." Brian said, motioning for her to go ahead of him down the stairs. Shayde couldn't help but to smile at his being a gentleman.

"Kaidyn? Asleep? _This _early? Yeah, I could only wish." Shayde laughed, praying that Brian was right.

"What you wishing for, sis?" Kaidyn asked, grinning at Brian. She had already gotten her surprise from him and was overjoyed.

"Nothing. Aren't you the least bit tired yet?" Shayde asked with a yawn.

"No, not really. I have so much to do right now. Lots of shopping." Kaidyn grinned wickedly, blinking her wide awake eyes.

"Shopping?" Shayde asked, wiping her teary eyes that had become teary from yawning.

"Ok, Shayde, close your eyes." Brian ordered with a nod.

"Augh, do I have to?" She asked, groaning.

"Of course you do." Kaidyn said excitedly.

"Fine, let's just get this over with so I can get to bed." Shayde sighed.

"Okay, it's in here." Brian took Shayde's hand and led her into the kitchen where he had sat her computer.

"Brian, if I trip, you will get your ass kicked." Shayde warned, hating to walk with her eyes closed.

"Okay, you can open them now." Brian smiled, letting go of her hand before she had a chance to take it away herself.

"What is this?" Shayde asked, slightly taken aback. On the kitchen table was a desktop computer.

"A computer for you. Hector told me they ransacked the place and so I thought I'd get you guys some new ones." Brian said proudly.

"Well, I appreciate your thought but I don't need you to buy me a computer." Shayde said, almost coldly.

"Us, he bought us a computer. Well, he bought you a computer, he bought me a notebook." Kaidyn clapped her hands ecstatically.

"Why'd you go and do that, Brian?" Shayde asked, her honey brown eyes narrowing. Brian's grin disappeared quickly.

"What do you mean, why'd I do that?" Brian asked, clearly not understanding Shayde now.

"I mean, why'd you go and spend money on two people you hardly even know?" Shayde asked, throwing her hands up in the air. She was fighting very hard to keep her voice controlled and keep it from sounding hateful for her sister's benefit.

"Maybe because I'm a nice guy and _maybe_, just maybe I wanted to help, is that a crime?" Brian asked, his eyes flashing with his own anger. He too was trying hard to keep his voice tone controlled. Kaidyn's bright blue eyes flashed from one to the other as they talked.

"Funny you mention crime, you might know a thing or two about that, huh?" Shayde asked, folding her arms.

"Do you ever get off your high horse, even for a second?" Brian asked, knowing he was inviting her for a battle now. The expression on her face gave it away.

"High horse? Let's talk about high horse, you're the one who goes around buying things for people to make them like him, flashin your cash, and acting like the guy who rides in on his _horse_ like some damn knight who saves the day." Shayde shot back, her anger no longer contained.

"Forgive me for trying to do something nice." Brian said. He wanted to bolt for the door but couldn't bring himself to allow Shayde to win like that.

"Well, save yourself and don't try to 'do anything' for me or my sister again, okay?" Shayde asked, her arms folded and her face flushed now.

"I'll do that when you get off your high and mighty trip. How about that?" Brian asked, leaning close to her face and saying with controlled ire.

"Can we please at least pretend to like each other and be civil?" Kaidyn asked, scratching her head and trying to figure out how to get in between the two. They were so close they could be kissing, but yet here they stood, arguing. She didn't get her sister or Brian. They definitely deserved each other, she thought to herself.

"No!" They both shouted back at her with more of a snap than either had meant to. She looked at them indignantly and rolled her eyes.

"You two really deserve each other, you know that?" She asked, irritated at the both of them. She picked up Sprinkles and started to head for the door, massaging his fur with her anger.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Dominic asked, coming down the hallway.

"Got any playpens around? I think Brian and Shay both need a time out and you might want to have two play pins because they obviously can't be together." Kaidyn ranted with what seemed to be a never ending rant. Dominic tried to be patient but couldn't hold out anymore.

"First of all, why is that cat out of your room and second, slow down and tell me what you are going on about, please." He said, rubbing his eyes. He hated how cats made his eyes itch. He just wanted to claw out his eyes.

"Oh, I didn't tell you Sprinkles could open doors did I? It's a talent of his." Kaidyn smiled proudly, forgetting her sister and Brian for a moment. Dominic grimaced and fought the urge to ban the cat right then and there but he didn't. He could tell by Kaidyn's deep breath that she was about to answer his second question so he decided to just let her go on. "And to your second question, baby Brian and baby Shay are in there arguing because he did something nice for her and she's too proud to say thank you but not too proud to say kiss my ass and…"Kaidyn said, her voice growing louder with each word.

"Watch the mouth." Dominic raised a warning eyebrow. "Go put that cat in your room and I'll go handle this situation." He promised, pointing to her room.

"_That cat_ has a name, you know." She corrected him now, holding Sprinkles closer to her head and petting him. He purred and licked her chin lovingly. "I'd hate to make you pay for vet bills if he became depressed over you calling him some generic name…"Kaidyn warned, clicking her teeth and shaking her head.

"Bed. Now. Goodnight." Dominic pointed to the door.

"I'm going." Kaidyn sighed in defeat.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Dominic asked, clearing his throat. She flashed him a silly smile and leaned up to hug him and kiss him on the cheek. "Goodnight, Blondie. Sleep tight. Don't worry about O'Connor or Shay. I got them." He promised, happy to see that she had trotted off to bed with no arguments or further conversation. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to go break up the shouting coming in from the other room.

"You think…" Brian started but Shayde could be heard interrupting him as Dominic neared the door.

"I think what, _Brian_?" Shayde asked bitterly, whirling around to face him now. She had been planning to be the bigger person and leave but he _just had to _make another comment. "I think what, genius? Because you aren't in my brain and you sure as hell haven't known me long enough to make asinine assumptions and assume like a jackass that you have the slightest clue about me or my damn sister, I don't care how long you spent with her in a car, you have no idea 

how complex she is or about the situation or especially how I think." Shayde yelled, her temper getting the best of her. Dominic stood on the edge of the door, almost feeling guilty for being a bystander and eavesdropper but he didn't believe in butting into other people's business either. So, for the moment, he decided to stand there, to be on call in case things broke out into something more serious and if not, just enjoy watching the match up that was unfolding like a wrestling match in the ring. He tried not to grin at Brian's speechlessness but found that hard not to do.

"How you think, that's funny." Brian retorted with a scoff, staring her down. "I don't think _you _know how you think, that's what I think." Brian spat, making Shayde open her mouth at his audacity.

"Well, I think you don't think at all. I'm sure that bump that one of Carter's goons gave you on the head is affecting your thought process." Shayde said, turning to the kitchen counter to wipe it off, mainly to keep her hands busy and from wanting to punch him like she had the notion to do.

"What, you been checking up on me now? I checked up on you and you go and act like a three year old and do the same thing. What about that high horse now, _Shayde?" _Brian asked, blocking the door leading out of the kitchen, just in case she was planning to bolt outside.

"I have Kaidyn, she can find out anything on anyone and I didn't ask her to do it, she did it on her own, obviously for good reason, the kid's smart and picks up on people well. I say she called you pretty good." Shayde said, pausing and then finishing her sentence. She stopped wiping, realizing that Kaidyn hadn't actually dogged Brian or said anything bad about him at all, despite all her frivolous research she had said she had done.

"And how is that, Shayde? How did she call me?" Brian asked, leaning on the table, sensing she had regretted what she had just said. Her level of confidence had changed, something about her aura, and he had picked up on it. Kaidyn wasn't the only one who was good at reading people.

"I don't need her to tell me who's a jackass and who's not, so what does it matter?" Shayde asked, her temper coming back to her now as she stood in an uptight straight stance.

"Oh, so now it's name calling and yet I'm the jackass. That's real cute, Shayde." Brian said, emphasizing her name like a grade schooler would do on the playground.

"Pretty interesting, huh?" Tej asked, eating some popcorn as he snuck up behind Dominic.

"Yeah, I guess you know you have no life when you listen in on two people fightin." Dominic joked in a quiet tone.

"Who you think is gonna win?" Tej asked with a nod towards the kitchen.

"I don't know. Probably Shay." Dominic said, not too sure of his answer. Brian was a pretty good match for his long time friend, he had to admit. It could almost be a fifty -fifty outcome in his eyes at this point based on what he had heard so far.

"My money's on Shayde, Rome's is on Brian. Leon is on Brian and Vince is backing Brian too. Care to make a wager?" Tej asked, holding out a stack of money with a big grin on his face.

"Nah, I'll pass this one." Dominic said, hearing Shayde slam the refrigerator door as she shot back some comment to Brian.

"Cool, cool. Well, good luck playing zebra to those two. I'm off to get some sleep." Tej said giving a wave. Dominic laughed at him using the term zebra instead of referee.

"You know what, I'm going to go to bed and maybe tomorrow after you've had time to process this whole argument, you'll realize you were arguing and calling me names for nothing." Brian said, throwing his hands up and giving in. It was well past two am now and he was tired. Mentally and physically. It was time to call it a night.

"I bet I won't." Shayde shook her head, smiling to herself. She knew she had won this one."But keep tellin yourself that." She called after him in a sing song voice. He walked out of the kitchen, flipping her off. "Oh, thanks for the warm exit. Like I've never seen that one before." She yelled after him. This made him turn around in a haste, grabbing her arms. She looked at him, startled as he grabbed her arms and held them in front of him.

"Listen to me, I don't know what your problem is, I've done nothing but be nice to you and here you are being stubborn and actin stupid and I've had enough of it. I know you have more than looks going for you, so use your brain and quit being like this because it's really not becoming on you at all. I'm going to go to bed now and not hear another word from you and tomorrow we are going to go somewhere to eat and talk this thing over. Got it?" He asked, not playing around now. His eyes were intense and his breathing was labored as he shook her arms gently for emphasis. He then let go and turned around to walk out.

"Wow, you gonna let him school you like that?" Dominic walked in, trying to hide his grin at Shayde's still opened mouth.

"Shut up, he didn't school me." Shayde mumbled, turning around to wipe the counter off again.

"You know, if you keep cleaning my counter, I'ma hafta get new countertops." He joked, sitting down in the chair and leaning back with his hands behind his head.

"I'll just buy you new ones." Shayde shrugged, her voice quiet.

"Come on, let's go up to my room and sit on the roof like we did in the old days." He grabbed her hand and led her through the kitchen. They had grown up in this house, it was all familiar to Shayde and the roof was the one place the crew could always go hang out on and sit and not be noticed from inside or out because of the design of the house. The roof was Dominic's solitude and place for sanity when things went crazy and was out of his control. She was silent all the way out there. Outside, it was a clear breezy, hot, typical California night which made it all the more nostalgic for Shayde. "You gonna be okay?" Dominic asked, leaning back on the roof and again putting his hands behind his head. Shayde did the same, but crossed her feet. They both stared up at the stars in silence for a bit. Dominic sighed. "Isn't it funny how some things never change?" He asked, shaking his head.

"Yeah, funny, I was just thinking the same thing." Shayde finally replied, her voice still light.

"I remember the day my dad was killed. I wouldn't come down from here so you came and camped out and kept bringing me food and shit. What a damn coward I was." Dominic laughed at himself with a sad sort of laugh.

"You weren't a coward, you never were and you could never be a coward so shut that shit up, Dom." Shayde reached over and slapped him for saying that.

"I'm just saying, we've had the best and the worst of times up here is all. It don't seem like anything has changed since the last time we were here." He laughed.

"But it has, unfortunately." Shayde said, coughing. She kept her eyes glued to the millions of twinkling stars above them.

"Wonder what Kaidyn would do if she knew you were up here, all in tears, freaking out about having a little sister?" Dominic asked, the scene playing back in his head the day Shayde had found out Kaidyn existed.

"She wouldn't think anything cause she'll never know, thank you." Shayde snapped but in a soft tone. "Why would you even bring that up?" She asked, sitting up and drawing her knees to her chest.

"Just ironic that she was the thing that tore up your family and here you are so many years later you're here protecting her and putting your life in danger for her." Dominic said, trying to not sound like he was putting the blame on Kaidyn.

"Well, I didn't know then what I know now and it's my choice to put my life on the line, Dom." Shayde said defensively, her body tensing.

"I'm not saying anything or making any judgments, I just came out here to talk about what happened between you and Brian." Dominic held up his hands innocently.

"Sorry, I'm a bit uptight I guess." Shayde smiled, settling back down on her back.

"I can see why. You have a crazy brother who is after you to kill your more than nutty sister all the while putting up with the hormone infested ex cop that is trying to buy your love." Dominic laughed, making Shayde laugh. "You know, reality TV is hot these days, you should really try to get into that line of work." He joked, making Shayde punch him.

"Along with my illegal street racing races and my thugged out crew of mechanics I keep for friends…yeah, that'd be a hit show for sure." Shayde said dryly.

"Not to mention the ever loving best friend that you have that is always at your beck and call and that is so infatuated with you he can't stand it. Kaidyn may soon be driving him to the mental ward because he can't 'get past' her." Dominic laughed, holding his stomach now.

"Yeah, you know, she's so funny. Did you know when we went to McDonalds and got in his car, she had me and Hector both believing she didn't' remember him. She drilled him the WHOLE way to the garage. I pretended to be asleep but it was damn hard to because I wanted to laugh so bad." Shayde confessed with a deep laugh.

"She's good at that thing. Her and Sprinkles need to get an act together, they'd make money. She has that pull to draw people in like that." Dominic nodded. He loved that about her but he also hated that about her too, because it was her 'pull' that had gotten Shayde so attached to her and that attachment had gotten Shayde into the situation she was into as of right now and being in hiding.

"I know you think I made the wrong choice to do what I did, but I couldn't leave her behind. She didn't ask for any of this." Shayde sighed, turning serious. She knew her bestfriend's take on it all. She had heard it a million times. She shouldn't have to deal with all of this, she was going to be one of the great ones, she was going places, and those were just a few of the things he had told her over the course of the years. Sure, he loved Kaidyn like his own sister but he still couldn't help feeling the way he felt, Shayde reasoned. He loved her and only wanted what was best for her and that was clear, she just didn't agree with his opinions and his take on the situation.

"I know you made your choice and I have always supported you no matter how different our thoughts were on it, but I still hate to see you suffer. You gave up your college scholarship, you gave up your racing career and you know as good as I do you could be right there with Danica and be one of the few great female drivers, you know?" Dominic asked, knowing this was probably going to be an argument. But it was an argument he felt strongly enough about to argue about it.

"But I'm not, I could have also ended up getting killed in a race, I could have gotten a degree, went to work in an office for 60 something hours a week bringing my cup of java with me every day and fell over and had a heart attack just as good as what is going on now. Just because those things were started doesn't mean they would have turned out any better." Shayde chided, knowing she was right.

"You don't drink java, do you?" Dominic looked confused, knowing full well she didn't.

"I'm going to push you off this roof if you don't stop it and listen to me." She warned, ignoring his question.

"All I'm saying is you weren't ready to deal with the responsibility of a kid and especially not Kaidyn. That was my point." Dominic said, sighing.

"Well, that was then, this is now. I'm doing good with her now so who cares if the past was rough?" Shayde asked, giving him a fake smile and batting her eyelashes.

"I do. It's just hard to watch you suffer with all her antics and stuff when I know you could have been going through something much different, maybe better. I mean, you have had her out of juvie for what, two months? What if she goes back and starts the same stuff again? It's just a lot for you to handle." He said, knowing what was coming next.

"Yeah, and you taking on Mia wasn't anything, right?" Shayde shot back just as he had expected.

"My sister didn't have Adhd and act out like Kaidyn has either." Dominic reminded her.

"_You _also had the whole crew to help keep her in line; I had to go on the run because of my psycho brother so I was alone and had to do the best I could." Shayde reminded him, no defensiveness to her tone this time.

"I know that. But my point is, she's older now and she's got to be responsible for herself and you've got to let yourself have a life, Shay. You've always put her before you and it's time to stop." Dominic said, hating to sound like a completely non understanding ass but he felt that he had to say it, because if he didn't, no one else would.

"Dom, you might think I put my life on hold all because of her and that's okay if you want to think that, but did you ever think I _chose _the things I do because I wanted to? Sure, some of it is because I had to but I'm not ready to get hurt by some guy or have to answer to someone, I'm not going to let that happen. _That's_ my choice. Not hers and not because of her." Shayde said, her voice light now as she talked.

"Okay, I can see that, but the girl is 18. You can't keep babying her." Dominic said, hoping he wasn't pushing this too far.

"So that's it, you think I'm babying her. Well, let's see, if you saw your mom murdered by someone who you thought was your real brother and turns out is your half brother and who hates you and wants you dead so he can have the family fortune, and you already had a hard life being raised by your mom and didn't know your family wasn't really your _whole _family and suffered post traumatic stress and couldn't remember things, even simple little things like what your favorite toy was growing up and then being ordered into all this bullshit counseling just so your rich brother could keep tabs on how you were doing and if you remembered so in case you did he could have you killed at a second's notice and then had to be on the run so much and pretty much feel like a burden to everyone, would you act out? I think you would. I mean, you lost your dad and you went all illegal and started heisting cars so how does that make you any different?" Shayde asked, tears running down her face now as Dominic stared at her, shocked at her outburst.

**A/n: Amazing how long this update was! I had to stop it here or it would have ended up being 20 pages. This chapter pretty much wrote itself. Hope you like it. Take care and hope all of you are staying safe for the July 4****th**** holiday and having a good one at that in the states and for those of you that aren't, I hope the same for you whether it is a holiday or not! Thanks and please leave me a review! Love, Cheer**


	19. Chapter 19

Blacktop Obsession Chapter 19

A/N: Warning! Laughable conditions may apply and are forecasted to happen within this chapter! (Ps- Thanks for reading and reviewing! Love you all, Cheer)

"Hi Jess! Glad you're home, how was your day today?" Kaidyn greeted Jesse at the door as soon as he walked in from the work day.

"Good, but hot." Jesse wiped the sweat from his head with his elbow.

"Here, I made you a glass of iced tea." She smiled at him, happy someone was home to talk to that she hadn't already talked to during the day.

"Um, thanks. I don't really drink tea but …" He stopped, seeing how she was staring at him, and decided to humor her. "Well, certain types of tea, this one is really good." He said, knowing it was best to just humor her. He had been her best friend growing up and he loved her like a sister, he was almost closer to her than he was Mia. He finished off the glass, glad he had drank it; it was really good and sweet after the hot work day he had. "It's good. Thanks, girl." He nodded, getting up to go hit the showers for the races that night.

"Hey, Jess, come to your room." Kaidyn said, calling over her shoulder. She looked like an anxious kid.  
"Okay, why?" Jesse asked, confused.

"So I can show you what I did today." She replied, climbing the stairs. He followed her without words and went into his room. To his relief, nothing looked out of place or different.

"Okay, what did you do today?" He asked, giving up and just wanting to be able to go take his shower.

"I re-arranged all your music on your ITunes. It was a mess but I got all 987 songs cleaned up and organized by title and artist." She smiled proudly, anxious for his reaction.

"You what?" Jesse shook his head, hoping he had heard her wrong.

"You heard me, silly." She punched him playfully. "It was a big mess." She nodded, sitting at his desk chair and crossed her long dancer legs.

"Kaidyn! It took me months to get it set up the way I wanted!" He complained, almost yelling. Her expression fell and she looked like a mixture of a person who was confused and hurt at the same time.

"You're yelling at me." She said, almost pouting, as she got up to leave.

"I'm not yelling. I'm just not happy at the moment." He said, running a hand through his hair. She was his bestfriend but she could stress him very easily at the same time.

"Well, I'm sorry if I 'messed' it up." She said, walking out and walking downstairs to grab her drink before she headed back up to her room. She went to her room and stared at it with a bored stare. It was a 4 wall imprisonment to her. Her day had been long and drawn out, Shayde was still asleep and she was bored to tears. Meanwhile, Jesse went downstairs to find Dominic.

"Dom! Dom!" Jesse called, hunting furiously throughout the house for him.

"Damn, what's up?" Vince asked, walking in.

"Kaidyn redid all my ITunes and it took me months to get that shit straight. I gotta find Dom to figure out how to lock up my door." Jesse grumbled, almost feeling guilty for talking so badly about her.

"That Kaidyn tornado didn't strike me, thank goodness. I think Dom went out to the garage to pull out some meat for dinner." Vince laughed at Jesse as he took a drink of his beer.

"You hope she didn't. And don't call her a tornado." Jesse defended her as he headed out to Dominic's garage.

"She knows better than to mess with my shit." Vince called after Jesse as he walked out to the garage to see if Dominic was out there or not, ready to navigate the usual mess and tools but stepped into an almost sparkling garage and found Dominic standing in the middle, looking lost and totally out of place. "What happened in here?" He asked. He had a good feeling he knew but he wasn't one to rat people out.

"I thought you might already know. It appears my garage was cleaned by Miss Kaidyn. I don't have a fucking clue where anything is at all." Dominic frowned, scratching his head as he stood in the completely clean garage floor. This was something _his_ garage had never been. His motto had always been a good garage was a messy garage. He wasn't happy at this and Jesse could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

"Yeah, all of my 987 songs on ITunes were jacked with. It took me months to get that shit the way I wanted it." Jesse complained.

"Yeah, I know. I gotta get that girl a hobby or something. I'll be back, I have to go talk to her." Dominic said, heading for the door. He rushed upstairs and went straight into Kaidyn's room, not bothering to knock.

"You could knock, you know." Kaidyn said, looking up from her computer and looking offended.

"Come here. We have to talk." Dominic grabbed her elbow and pulled her up. He led her down the stairs, ignoring her protests.

"Slaughter time, Kiddo." Vince called from his chair with a laugh.

"Shut up, Vince." Kaidyn yelled, her tone of voice full of annoyance.

"What the hell is this?" Dominic asked, holding out his arms in his garage. "I'm not Mr. fucking clean and my garage shouldn't be either. What did you do?!" He asked, folding his arms, tapping his foot.

"You don't appreciate my cleaning?" Kaidyn asked, her voice small. She had only really seen Dominic lose his temper a few times and every time she had, she shuddered. He was ten times her size and his temper alone was scary.

"Appreciation is given when someone _asks_ you to do something for them. I don't recall asking you to clean my damn garage." Dominic bellowed, making Kaidyn wince.

"I'm sorry! I was bored. I thought I would be helping. I did all your dishes, I did the garage, I washed Vince's dirty laundry he left in the laundry room and …"Kaidyn stopped, seeing Dominic's face turn red.

"You washed his clothes. Great. Now he'll be on the warpath too. We have got to find you a hobby." Dominic shook his head. Kaidyn looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry I am being a problem for you all." Kaidyn said, starting to walk out. Dominic put a hand on her shoulder gently to stop her.

"K, I'm just saying that we all are used to living on our own and doing our own stuff. You're a 180 from Mia because she never did any of that stuff for us. It's just going to take some time for us to get used to each other."Dominic said, his tone somewhat apologetic.

"Yeah, well, I don't know how Mia survived you all." Kaidyn sighed, pulling her shoulder away, not taking his apology so easily.

"Look, just do me a favor and think about what your hobby is and I'll see what I can do to help you have something to do. Okay?" Dominic asked.

"Yeah, maybe. But seeing as how I love hockey, you can' t take me to any games and watching it on TV just sucks, I love to dance, but it's not like I can dance being kept 

chained up in this house and would you like me to go on?" Kaidyn asked, throwing up her hands. She stormed out, not waiting for a reply.

"Vince, can you go get some steaks for me?" Dominic asked, coming out of the garage.

"Yeah, sure, if you tell her I don't like wearin pink draws." Vince complained with a mumble, holding up some pink boxers with a grimace.

"Yeah, man, I was comin to tell you about that. I already handled it. Now go get some steaks, would ya?" Dominic asked, his irritated tone present and accounted for.

"We don't need no steaks for dinner. Hector called and said he's bringing over dinner. Something about Kaidyn wanted Chinese or something." Vince said, leaning back in his favorite chair.

"Remind me to go collect her cell phone after dinner." Dominic frowned, plopping down on the couch.

"Yo, where's Brian?" Leon came in shirtless, just having taken a shower.

"Still at work, he wanted to take all of Kaidyn's calls today and talk so I made him stay late to make up the time." Dominic said, grabbing the remote and flipping through the channels.

"Maybe he can go get a job in a call center like pretty boys should do since he likes talkin on that damn phone so much." Vince sniveled, making Dominic get an amused smile on his face.


	20. Chapter 20

Blacktop Obsession chapter 20

"Wow, you're all dressed up." Kaidyn said, giving Leon a raised eyebrow.

"Races tonight, I gotta catch a few racer chasers." Leon gave her a grin.

"You guys are so lucky to be going to the races." Kaidyn leaned on the rail of the stairs, as though pouting.

"I guess. You won't be missin much. You get to have some peace and quiet around here." Leon offered, trying not to make her feel bad.

"I didn't even realize you could race in LA. Like, there's no places to race is there?" She asked, hoping he would spit out the street name of where they'd be tonight.

"Yeah, a few." Leon nodded.

"Like where? I thought all the streets in LA were covered with cops." She said, making it sound like she didn't really care all that much to know.

"Well, we change it up a bit. Shartel and Sunny Boulevard are pretty much abandoned." Leon shrugged, giving it no thought that he was giving her the location.

"Hey guys." Hector walked in carrying two brown paper bags full of Chinese food.

"Yes! I'm starving!" Jesse grabbed one of the bags out of his hands and carried it over to the table.

"Thanks for bringing dinner, Hector." Kaidyn smiled at him sincerely.

"No prob girl. Why don't you go round up your sister and the rest of the crew?" He asked, setting the food out on the table.

"Kay." She said, going to Shayde's room. She knocked on the door and pushed it open. It was completely dark inside.

"What's up?" Shayde asked, rubbing her eyes.

"It's time to eat. Hector brought us Chinese." She sat on her sister's bed. "You okay?" She asked, feeling her sister's forehead.

"I'm just tired. I think I'll skip dinner and get some rest." Shayde smiled, playing with her sister's long locks. She had stayed up all night until Kaidyn had finally dozed off at around 9 that morning. She didn't sleep that much so Shayde took advantage of sleeping when she did to make sure she didn't try to do anything drastic such as sneak outside.

"You got a headache?" Kaidyn asked, concerned.

"A little one. But it's cool. Hector's bringing me some meds and he's going to stay over here while they go race so I can get some sleep." Shayde said, laying back. Kaidyn covered up her sister and left, closing the door quietly.

"As if I need to be babysat." She muttered to herself in anger at her sister's last comment.

"Kaidyn, you going to eat today?" Dominic called to her, expecting her to give him some attitude from their earlier confrontation. He had made the over anxious, starving boys of his crew wait until she came down, just to be nice.

"Oh, I'm not eating." Kaidyn said, sitting down by Hector.

"So, you made Hector go get you food and now you're not eating it?" Dominic raised an eyebrow, not looking too happy. He hated disrespect.

"It's cool, Dom." Hector interjected, not wanting a fight to start.

"I didn't _make _him do anything. I don't eat until later unless you'd like me to stuff my face right now for your benefit."She said dryly.

"Kaidyn, watch your mouth, girl. He's not used to how you do things just yet. Just chill. You're fine." Hector said, putting a hand on her shoulder, scolding her yet not wanting her to feel like that was what he was doing.

"I don't have to put up with this."Kaidyn grumbled, her face red with anger. Dominic sighed and motioned for the guys to go ahead and eat.

"Just let her go. She'll cool off and be fine by the time you guys get home." Hector said, passing the LoMein to Jesse.

"Let's hope Dom can cool off." Vince cackled, getting a hit from Leon. He busied himself by going back to eat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Are you pretending to be a street racer, yo?" Kaidyn asked, leaning on Jesse's car at the races.

"AUGH! What the hell are you doing here?" Jesse asked, stopping and staring at her, the color draining from his face. He grabbed her elbow and shoved her in his car.

"What, you get nervous when people want to watch you race?" Kaidyn asked, a big grin on her face.

"Are you flippin nuts? Are you trying to get me killed?!" Jesse asked, his face still white as he started to put his shaking hand on the car's steering wheel.

"No, I don't think so. I've been evaluated before but they didn't think I was nuts." Kaidyn nodded with a seriousness that would have made him laugh at any other time.

"Get down. Oh my god, oh my god, what am I going to do? I can't believe you did this to me, Kaidyn!" Jesse hit his head on the steering wheel, shaking his head.

"Good, I can race with you being in the floorboard." Kaidyn nodded, clapping her hands together happily.

"NO! No, no, no! You CAN'T  race with me! Are you nuts?! If I crash, you'd be crushed into dust!" Jesse exclaimed, wiping the sweat off of his head.

"Fine, let me get out then." Kaidyn said, not really understanding why he was freaking out so much. "Do you not have some faith in your racing?" She asked, examining her nails.

"Oh, I have faith, but come on, Kk. I'm going to get killed by Dom or worse, by Shayde. I don't know which one is worse…" Jesse fretted, his voice a bit cracked as he talked. The walkie- talkie went off and that was his key that he was up for a race. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." He said, 

feeling sweat pour down his face. He quickly threw his jacket over her and some of his CD books and stuff. "Be freaking quiet." He growled. There was a guy in an open button down shirt walking towards him.

"Hi there." A man that looked somewhat Italian leaned down on Jesse's side of the window. Jesse drew in a sharp breath, realizing this was Carter Verone, someone he had seen a picture of many times.

"Hi, can I help you?" Jesse asked, hoping he was strong enough to pull this off without messing it up. Damn him for having to leave the crew to go talk to a female. He should have known better. Focus, he reminded himself. He looked up at the tall guy and waited for an answer.

"Yes, you can. Have you seen this girl?" Carter held up a picture, the corners of his lips pursed.

"Uh-uh, no way. Girls that look like that don't come to these races." Jesse said, shaking his head, taken a back at the picture he was staring at. It didn't look like his tomboy best friend he was used to seeing. It was Kaidyn but she was all dressed up to the nines in this picture.

"Watch that tongue of yours, boy. That's my cousin you are talking about." Carter took a deep breath and scowled. Jesse could hear Kaidyn move just a bit and he prayed this would be over quicker than it started.

"You don't look anything alike but no, I haven't seen her. Trust me, any girl that looked like that, all of us racers would know her." Jesse nodded, making Carter look away and give one of his trademark 'I'm going to get you for that remark' smiles.

"I'm going to let you take one more look at this pic, real close, and make sure. Because me and my boys don't take to mistakes real well. Now, of course, she wouldn't be dressed like this, but you get the general idea." Carter held the picture up real close to Jesse's face. Jesse gulped and tried to make it not seem like he was nervous.

"Jess, do you copy? You're the fourth and we waitin on you. Dom's about to call it off if you don't get over here." Vince came across the radio, his tone clearly annoyed.

"I swear to you, I haven't seen her. I have a race to get to." Jesse said, looking Carter in the eye, getting a bit more confidence after hearing Vince's voice.

"Yeah, okay. Just keep an eye out and if you see her, I'm offering a 50, 000 dollar reward if you find her. It's important I find her and I need her home. I can't sleep without her being home." Carter nodded, his voice cold.

"Yeah, will do." Jesse nodded, not breaking his gaze from Carter's cold eyes. He took the card Carter gave him and the flyer and started to back away, praying he wasn't on to them and that he wouldn't pull out a gun and spray the car with bullets.

"Well, that was fun." Kaidyn said, her head popping up through the side of the seat.

"Are you fucking nuts? Or just stupid?! Stay down!" Jesse grumbled, knowing Carter was still watching them. He headed to the start of the line.

"You on your toes tonight?" Dominic leaned down, looking at Jesse, who was feeling like he was going to vomit.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on 'em all right." Jesse said, noticing sweat was running down his head like he had just gone through a rain storm.

"You can do this, Kid. You sure you feel all right?" Dominic asked, raising a concerned eyebrow.

"Yeah, but I think I'll just head home afterwards, I think that Chinese is messin with me." Jesse said, nodding.

"I guess I'm racin with you after all." Kaidyn smiled smugly, bracing herself on the floorboard and getting more comfortable.

"Shut up and let me drive. We'll talk on the way home." Jesse snapped, revving his engine and trying to get his focus. She took that as a clue and sat there, quiet. She waited until she heard him shift and say home stretch to himself.

"You should hit that NOS now, don't you think?" She asked, chewing on her fingernail a bit. She was jerked forward as he hit it, his hand had already been on the switch when she decided to pipe up.

"I got it, thank you. Do you remember what be quiet means?" Jesse asked, the scenery passing him by in a whirl. Kaidyn giggled at the rush. "I'm going to kill you when we get home." Jesse promised, his car slowing down gradually. "Stay down so I can get out of here without any trouble and if you don't, I'll never talk to you again." Jesse warned. He got out and did the usual winner thing the winners did.

"Man, you almost lost that one. But good job." Vince patted him on the back.

"Yeah, I'm not feelin real well so I told Dom I was going to head home soon. In fact, I think I'll head out now. No tellin what they put in that Chinese." Jesse held his stomach, nervous because Vince was on the passenger side, and it wouldn't take but seconds for him to open that side. Jesse was really starting to feel like he was going to throw up.

"Why you so mad at me?" Kaidyn asked, wanting to get up out of Jesse's floor.

"Why am I so mad at you?! Are you fucking serious?" Jesse asked, his face beat red. "You sneak out and can get yourself killed, that's one of the reasons!" He yelled, fighting to keep his composure. "That was _your_ brother, the one that wanted to kill you that was at my window tonight. We were both seconds away from being murdered."Jesse said, trying to relax.

"Well, he doesn't realize I'm worth way more than 50 thousand." Kaidyn huffed, getting up.

"Stay down, please. I can't have you getting hurt. Just in case they are following us." Jesse said, pushing her head back down. "You know you can't spend money when you're dead, right? What good would the damn money be if you're dead? You do realize that they don't have malls where you'd be going if he found you, right?" Jesse asked, praying that they made it home safely every half mile. He mouthed 'Thank you God' when they made it to the garage of the house.

"Of course, I know that. I'm blonde, not dumb. I would have gotten out. I would love to give Carter a few good kicks." Kaidyn said, feeling braver tonight than she had in a long time. Maybe it was because she was so cooped up, she wasn't sure why.

"Is that before or after he sprays you with his glock?" Jesse asked, shaking his head at her in amusement. He turned to Kaidyn. "I pray that we can pull this off because if not, I know Shay will chop my balls off even though I had _nothing _ to do with you sneaking out." Jesse said, grabbing his bestfriend's arm and making her look him in the eye.

"I'll calm her down if she does. Relax." Kaidyn said, getting out and putting on her robe she had stashed in the garage for this very reason.  
"Easy for you to say. Is that before or after she gets the knife?" Jesse asked, going up the stairs. Kaidyn turned around and put a finger to her lips, meaning for him to be quiet. They came to his door and she pushed him into his room just as Shayde's door was opening. Kaidyn threw off her shoes and tossed them in the clothes hamper in the hall.

"What you doin up?" Hector asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I was thirsty." Kaidyn lied, hoping the robe was good enough to hide the bright crimson dress she was wearing underneath it. She faked a yawn and stretch.

"Hmm, I would have thought that medicine Shay had me give you would have knocked you out cold. You did take it, right?" He asked, folding his arms.

"Yeah, of course I did, that's why I'm so sleepy." She said, faking yet another yawn. "Well, goodnight, I'm going to bed." Kaidyn said, trotting off to her room. She was glad she hadn't put on a lot of make-up because he would have for sure known then.

"Let me tuck you in." Hector offered, following her.

"No, it's okay. I got it. I'm just really tired now." Kaidyn tried to shut the door. Hector leaned on the door, waiting for her to take off her robe, knowing she never wore provocative pajamas. He knew she wouldn't take it off because he would catch her then.

"So, you took that pill huh? Funny, what is this?" Hector held up the small orange xxanex pill from her desk.

"Hmm, wonder what I took, then?" Kaidyn asked, waiting for him to turn around to put it back on the desk and then she quickly threw off the robe and practically jumped into bed.

"In a hurry to get under those covers?" Hector asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, just tired. Sheesh, what's with all the questions? That's my job." She tried to joke. Hector sat on the edge of her bed, not amused. He was quiet, making her squirm a bit.

"I hope you realize what a big risk you took. Not to just you, but to your sister and to this crew who is trying to help you." Hector said, no longer able to contain the fact that he knew what she had done.

"Maybe you took that pill, are you trippin out?" Kaidyn asked, snuggling under the covers more and making sure her legs and hands would keep him from pulling the covers off of her. She gave him a Cheshire cat smile and he shook his head.

"I'm not dumb, little girl." He said, tapping his foot. He was getting angry with her now and she could tell it.

"Is that my sister calling you? I think you should be worried about her. She's been not actin right lately." Kaidyn twirled her blonde hair on her finger, flashing him a big smile.

"Kaidy, it's one thing to disappoint me, but I'll be damned you disappoint her after all she's done for you." Hector frowned, shaking his head and t'sking his teeth. He stared at her with a frown, something he hadn't ever had to do with her before and then walked out, slamming the door. She chided herself for getting teary eyed and fell asleep crying. She had never felt so alone as what she did right now.


	21. Chapter 21

**Blacktop Obsession Chapter 21**

"**Man, Hector, you brought food over here for her again?" Dominic asked, raising a concerned eyebrow. Hector had came in the door, holding a bag of different subs and chips.**

"**Yeah, well, she was hungry so I thought since I was over at Harry's getting some parts I would stop by." Hector said with a shrug. "It's no big, Dom." He added, seeing Dominic take a deep breath.**

"**You going to be her love slave too?" Vince cackled, making Hector punch him in the arm.**

"**Shut that shit up." Hector laughed and shook his head, irritated at Vince's remarks. Leave it to him to try to start something. **

"**Kaidyn! You're personal chef is here and he brought you food!" Dominic yelled up the stairs, waiting to hear her thundering feet coming down the stairs as he had gotten used to hearing when she was called. Sprinkles rubbed in and out and around on Dominic's leg, making Dominic fight the urge to kick the thing. He made a note to yell at her about him later. He wasn't staying in her room as he had promised. Sure enough, Kaidyn came trotting down the stairs, smiling like usual.**

"**What's up big daddy?" She asked, her eyes twinkling with hyperness.**

"**Don't call me big daddy again." He pointed to her and warned, not letting her smile woo him like some of the other people in the house had let it. Then he pointed to the cat. "What is he doin out of the room? I thought we had an agreement." Dominic folded his arms and raised an eyebrow to look stern for emphasis.**

"**I don't know. I think I told you he knows how to open doors." Kaidyn shrugged, twirling her long blonde hair as she stared Dominic in the eyes, still smiling at him but being very still.**

"**Well, then he can kindly open the door to the front of the house and let himself out, if that is the case." Dominic said, nodding towards upstairs. "There is no reason that cat should be out, he has a freaking track that runs around your room and plenty of places to stay in. Get him up there or it's cat soup for dinner." He threatened.**

"**Ok, Ok. Wow, you must have had a really bad day." Kaidyn grumbled, scooping Sprinkles up in her arms. He gave a slight meow and licked her face with affection and she started talking to him as she carried him up the stairs.**

"**And when you are done, dinner is down here." Dominic called to her, shaking his head at her 'cat' talk. It was just like baby talk but to a cat. He didn't see any point in it. He hated cats. **

"**Oh, I'm not eating." Kaidyn called back to him as she sat on her floor, cross legged to play with her cat. She winded the mouse up and laughed as he took off after the feathered light up battery operated toy. The next thing she knew when she looked up, there stood Dominic.**

"_**What do you mean you are not going to eat**_**?" He demanded, his arms folded. "Hector came all the way over here just to bring you that and you aren't going to eat?" He asked, fed up with her spoiled and rude ways. He wasn't going to have that in his house. **

"**I'm not hungry." She shrugged, not noticing the seriousness of his tone of voice.**

"**Okay, that's it, we need to have a very serious talk." Dominic walked in and shut the door. He cleared all her papers and books off of her bed and sat down on it. His face was red.**

"**What now?" She asked, rolling her eyes.**

"**First of all, this is my house. You don't disrespect me by rolling your eyes, do you understand me?" He asked, growing more and more impatient with her as she stood there looking at him, her eyes wide now. She looked at the door nervously and wondered if she could bolt out and make it to Shayde before he caught her. His yelling brought her back out of her thoughts. "DO YOU HEAR ME?" His voice boomed, making her jump and wince a bit.**

"**Yes, I hear you." She responded, feeling like she was in elementary school all over again. **

"**You cannot keep doing this crap that you are pulling." Dominic stood up, throwing his hands up. **

"**What are you talking about?" She asked, taken aback by his anger. She wasn't used to someone losing it like this, Shayde and Hector and everyone else that hung around them were always laid back and pretty calm. She hated loud noises; it stressed her out even more. She fought to keep from covering her ears. **

"**Quit playing that little innocent act and stand up, I will not tolerate you acting this way in my house." Dominic said, feeling like he was going to blow a heart valve.**

"**Doing what? Just calm down and tell me so I at least know what I am in trouble for." Kaidyn batted her eyes, looking very confused.**

"**Quit playing dumb with me." Dominic growled, tired of this act she was pulling. Shayde might have been stupid enough or patient enough to deal with it but Kaidyn was in his house now. She had no choice but to shape up. Maybe he should have done this a long time ago to help Shayde not have so many problems, he thought to himself.**

"**Oh my god, get off the rag and your high horse and please tell me what you are talking about!" Kaidyn finally burst out, putting Sprinkles up in his cage so his eardrums wouldn't get damaged.**

"**What I am talking about? Are you kidding me?" Dominic asked, his eyes wide at her audacity.**

"**Oh, wait, I don't want to keep playing dumb. I guess since I don't have a clue as to what you are talking about then you are saying I'm dumb?" Kaidyn asked, drawing in a deep breath to keep from crying. It would be a cold day in hell before she let this jackass see her cry, she swore to herself. **

"**Oh, please, come off the poor me act, the I'm so helpless act, you know you know what I am talking about." Dominic rolled his eyes now, getting more irritated.**

"**No, I really don't." She held her chin up defiantly, waiting to hear his newest lecture he was about to give her. She kept her eyes on the door, praying someone would come in and rescue her from this brute with a booming voice.**

"**Ok, fine, keep up your little act, I'll give it to you straight up. You need to stop acting like the spoiled little brat you are acting like and start realizing there is more in the world going on than just what you need or want." Dominic said, it sounding harsher than he had thought it would but he wasn't sorry. She needed to hear this and she needed to hear it now. **

"**WHAT? What are you talking about?" She asked, her voice calm and stunned. **

"**There you go again with that miss innocent act. Kaidyn, Shayde has given up her life for you, there are so many things and places she could be at this moment but she chose you over life and here you are, acting like the world revolves around you and only you. You are nothing but spoiled." Dominic said, giving her the hard truth as he saw it. **

"**I'm spoiled? You think I don't know what she gave up for me? You think I'm not aware of it?" Kaidyn jumped up, her eyes big as though she had been struck in the stomach. She turned a pale sheet of white and tears welled up in her eyes.**

"**Come on, you can't get through life using people like you use Hector, Brian and anyone else who will bend over backwards for you. You have to realize what you have and your friends and be grateful for them." Dominic said, knowing this was going to be a long conversation.**

"**I do realize, thank you. I have no idea why you think I'm so ungrateful but I'll be out of this house and you won't have to worry about me anymore. You can keep Shayde since I'm the one messing up her life." Kaidyn said, tears streaming down her face now freely.**

"**Oh can the poor me crap, it won't work on me." Dominic rolled his eyes. "Kaidyn, you never sleep, you won't eat when the rest of the crew eats even though you ask for food, **

**you bounce around all the time, and you just need to fuckin chill out. You can't be doin this shit and stressin out my crew like this." Dominic said, his voice a tad bit softer now.**

"**Well, like I said, I won't stress them out anymore." She sniffled, her heart feeling like it was in her throat. She couldn't have said much more if she wanted to. When she got upset, it felt like her throat was closing up on her. **

"**You can't just act this way and keep doing this. You've got to settle down. You have to sleep, you have to be normal. You can't keep using people." Dominic said, trying to look her in the eyes as she looked away, wiping the tears in her eyes away furiously.**

"**I can't believe you think I ….nevermind, yes I can." Kaidyn said, her words choking out between deep breaths. "I can have my stuff and packed and out of here in twenty minutes." She said, getting up to grab her suitcase from the top of her closet. **

"**Sure, you're going to go out on the streets when there's a bullet with your name waiting to be fired into your head? I don't think that's very smart at all." Dominic said, heading towards the door, leaving her to her thoughts. She crumpled over on the floor and sobbed like her heart was going to break. She didn't know what to do. She didn't want to break Shayde's heart by running away because then it **_**would **_**make all that Shayde had sacrificed go to waste. But she couldn't stay here and keep 'stressing out' his crew. Her mind was on overdrive now, the racing thoughts racing so hard she was beginning to feel sick. She wished she knew what to do. Shayde would know what to do but obviously she used Shayde enough. She crawled to her bed after getting Sprinkles out and just sat against the bed, holding her cat, stroking him as she cried. Like a loving pet, he could sense she was upset and he stayed in her arms, licking her face and purring loudly. She looked at him and just cried harder. She really didn't know what to do. She shuddered at the thought of a 'bullet waiting to be put into her head'. She had never realized how bad her situation was, or maybe she had, but hadn't thought of it the way Dominic had just put it. She debated over her next steps, getting Sprinkles to sleep. Then she wrung her hands together as she sat on the floor, not moving. She wanted to prove to herself she could sit still, she could behave, she could be 'normal', although at the moment she wasn't sure what a normal person felt like unless a normal person's heart felt like it was broken and not able to be repaired.**

**A/N:Sorry it's been a while, I'm still here so please read and review and let me know what you are thinking on this story. I have also started a fic for Step Up 2 and am back to working on my story for The Covenant. So please feel free to check those out too! I won't be mad at you for leaving a review, lol!! Hope all is well, take care, Cheer **


	22. Chapter 22

Blacktop Obsession chapter 22

"Hey Kaidyn, you coming down to play me some Need for Speed?" Brian asked, pushing open the door that was open just a crack. He saw Kaidyn just sitting on her bed, her tears dried now. She was looking as though she was in a daze.

"No. I'm sure one of the guys will want to play you." Kaidyn said, her voice sounding a bit shaky. She hoped it wasn't detectible by the former detective.

"What's wrong?" Brian asked, knowing something was wrong. He hadn't seen Kaidyn sit still in one place like this, well, never. He wasn't sure what her deal was. She was just staring at her pink watch she had on her right hand.

"Nothing. Just timing myself." She said, her voice flat as she spoke. She took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Dominic's words still stung. She had replayed his last bit of information over and over in her head since he had walked out the door.

"Timing yourself for what?" Brian asked, looking confused.

"To see how long I can sit in one place. I need to stop moving so much, you know." She replied with her voice light. She looked away, her eyes not able to keep the tears from falling down her face. She figured Brian would just go away but that didn't seem to be the case at the moment.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Brian asked, coming in now. He stood over her with his arms folded, looking concerned.

"Nothing." She said, not able to say much more. She didn't want to rat Dominic out or go crying like a baby to her sister. That's what Dominic wanted and he wasn't going to get that.

"Don't bullshit me. Come on, tell me what's wrong." Brian said with a sigh and sat down beside her. Kaidyn shook her head, her tears freely falling down her face now. She was still avoiding Brian's concerned blue eyes.

"I'm sorry I call you a lot." She finally choked out, burrowing her head in her drawn up knees.

"You don't call me that much. I told you too. What gives?" Brian asked, starting to really get concerned now. "Who said something?" He asked, sighing.

"No one. It doesn't matter. Just go down stairs and leave me alone, please. I don't want anyone to yell at me and say I came tattling on them." Kaidyn said, her voice deep with emotion as she shook her head to help keep her emotions in check.

"Spill it. You need to tell me and you need to tell me now, Kaidyn." Brian said in such an authoritive tone it made Kaidyn wince.

"Dominic. But what he said is right." Kaidyn said, checking her watch. It was all she could do to keep sitting still. But she had to prove it to herself that she could be still and behave.

"I seriously doubt that. I think Dominic needs to have some more understanding and a lil education." Brian grimaced, running a hand through his sandy dark hair, something he did when he was nervous or upset about something. "Tell me what he said." Brian said, getting up and pacing for a second. He knew this was going to make Shayde mad and he hoped that she didn't just up and decide to leave, despite things being so unsafe.

"Don't worry about it." Kaidyn said, jumping at the sound of footsteps. Brian crouched beside her and looked at her in the eyes.

"You can tell me or I can go get Shayde and wake her up. Your choice." Brian shrugged nonchalantly and started to get up.

"No! Don't wake her up, please! She stayed up all night with me. She's tired. Just let her sleep." Kaidyn said, her eyes beginning to water again. She furiously swiped at the tears with the back of her hand, getting more frustrated at herself for crying and for verbalizing just what Dominic had said. She didn't ever sleep and Shayde always stayed up with her and slept in between just because she was such a good sister. She broke into miserable body wracking sobs as she silently bashed herself.

"Come on, Kaidyn. You can talk to me. I won't let anyone yell at you." Brian hugged her, feeling really sorry for her now. Whoever had yelled at her had 

obviously done a good number on her because she was an emotional mess. "Just tell me what he said. I think you are being too hard on yourself." Brian stroked her hair, something he had saw Shayde doing when she became upset.

"No, I'm not. He's right. About it all." Kaidyn sobbed, drawing in a deep breath and trying to take small breaths. It was then Brian realized how childlike she was and felt really sorry for her. He could see why Shayde was so protective of her.

"I'd hate to have to wake her up." Brian shook his head, looking sad. He knew he was baiting her but he needed to know what was said.

"Fine. Let's see, there's a bullet out there with my name on it, he told me that when I said I'd leave. I'm stressing out his crew. I'm spoiled because I don't eat when Hector brings food for me…" Kaidyn said, counting off on her fingers through her tears.

"What does he care? He's not the one bringing it and Hector has been doing that for a while. He only brought it over at the times he did because he knew the crew would be hungry." Brian frowned, his face turning a little bit red.

"I'm a spoiled brat, I need to wake up and realize there is more to the world than just what I want or need, I basically ruined Shayde's future because she has given it all up for me and that I should be grateful for her. I am grateful for her, Brian. I'm always telling her thank you for what she does." Kaidyn's voice cracked yet again and she wiped away tears.

"She knows that. I think Dominic needs to be told a thing or two and I know he has it all wrong, Kaidyn. I think he just doesn't understand. You can't let what he said bring you down because you are who you are and you have to keep being you. That's what makes you special. He's just jealous." Brian said, playing with her hair.

"Yeah, he's jealous that I never sleep." Kaidyn scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"He only wishes he had your energy. He's an old man, all old men want energy to get more done." Brian gave her a little grin and was glad to see a grin from her as well.

"He said I never sit still so that's why I haven't moved. I want to prove I can." Kaidyn said, looking at her watch.

"I think you just need to forget him and all what he said. He can have his good and bad moments. He's just forgotten what it's like to be young and he's never been in your situation so he's clueless." Brian said, fuming inside. He wasn't about to let her pick up on that, she sure didn't need that right now. He was still planning to go talk to Shayde. He would sit back and enjoy watching Shayde rip Dominic up. He was looking forward to seeing Dominic sweat. If anyone could make him sweat, it would be Shayde. Not only was she hot, she was fierce, Brian thought to himself.


End file.
